Black Lives Matter protesters began to rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, to protest the police shooting of a carjacker, but went home after receiving news that he was white.
The protest: Fox 9 reporter Mitti Hicks encountered the protesters outside Governor Tim Walz’s official mansion Sunday kneeling in silence after hearing rumors of the officer-involved shooting in Burnsville, a Twin Cities suburb.
- Hicks updated her tweet less than an hour later, saying the protesters had decided against going to protest in Burnsville itself “because they need more information about what happened.”
The reveal: According to a Burnsville police press release, a white suspect in his 20s was shot after firing a gun at police while fleeing from the vehicle he stole at TGI Friday’s.
- Local NBC affiliate KARE11 shared traffic camera footage of the confrontation.
The reaction: Conservatives on social media slammed the protesters for what they perceived as a lack of interest in white victims of police shootings.
- “They stopped protesting because the suspect, who was shot, was white and that screws with the entire narrative,” tweeted conservative Twitter personality Carmine Sabia.
Context: Riots and protests in the Minneapolis area broke out last week after a local police officer, who claimed to have mistakenly drawn her gun instead of a taser, shot and killed a black motorist.
- Tensions in the city have been running high as the trial of Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer who faces murder charges for the May 2020 death of George Floyd, draws to a close.
- “If nothing does not happen, then we know that we’ve got to not only stay in the street, but we’ve got to fight for justice,” California Rep. Maxine Waters said at a protest.
