Schools closed, businesses damaged in Brooklyn Center after police shooting
Residents, curious onlookers and business owners in Brooklyn Center emerged early Monday to begin cleaning up and to see for themselves the damage left behind after violence and looting broke out overnight following the fatal shooting of a motorist by police Sunday afternoon.
Officers in riot gear stood sentinel at the city's police station that was tagged with anti-police graffiti and where squad cars were damaged. The National Guard blocked the entrance to the Shingle Creek Crossing shopping plaza where several retailers had windows busted out and merchandise strewn on the floor. Flip-flops and bottles of fruity drinks littered the Walmart parking lot where a man who gave his name as Thomas was part of a small army of store employees picking up trash and debris.
"All of our large screen TV's were taken," he said.
Alarms blared at a Verizon store across the way where the front window was broken and a TV was ripped off the wall. Looters had ransacked the Icon Beauty Salon and left boxes of fake eyelashes behind in the parking lot. At Aspen Dental, only the front door sustained damage, but the clinic canceled all Monday appointments.
"I expected it to be way worse," said Sara Trout, an employee who was on the scene just before 7 a.m. even though she had received a text message telling her not to come to work.
A quiet yet tense feeling enveloped the Hennepin County suburb as law enforcement lifted an overnight curfew at 6 a.m. With fears that unrest could erupt again as police have scheduled an 11 a.m. media briefing, Brooklyn Center Community Schools told students to stay home and do distance learning.
"We know our community experienced trauma and we need the time and space to process," said Superintendent Carly Baker.
Adam New, a 1999 Brooklyn Center High School graduate who does not live in the city anymore, took a city bus to his hometown Monday morning to check out the aftermath of Sunday night's mayhem.
"They want to burn the place down," New said as he watched patrols guard the police station. "I'm sick of it. This has to spark change."
Scores of motorists with phones in hand took videos as they rolled by the station. Others, like Eric Cullen, of Bloomington, stopped by police headquarters to assess the situation and get a firsthand view rather than relying on media accounts of what happened.
"I'm a see-it-to-believe-it kind of guy," he said.
Events unfolded Sunday afternoon when a police officer allegedly shot Daunte Wright, 20, during a traffic stop about 2 p.m. in the area of 63rd Avenue and Orchard Avenue N. Wright drove a few blocks before he crashed into another vehicle and died. Wright had a warrant for his arrest at the time.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was on the scene and will conduct an independent investigation.
Protesters had assembled near the scene by Sunday afternoon and had been relatively peaceful until nightfall. That is when they marched to police headquarter near N. 66th Avenue and N. Humboldt Avenue and were locked in a standoff with police in riot gear. Police used tear gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd that had chanted Wright's name and climbed atop the police headquarters sign.
On Monday, crime scene tape remained in yards near where the shooting happened. At the shopping complex, broken glass covered sidewalks and business owners surveyed the damage.
"Oh, they hit the Dominos and the Wing Stop," Trout lamented. The manager of the pizza joint "is the nicest guy."
The dental clinic where she works was largely spared. Other than broken glass, "nothing was stolen," Trout said. "I'm not sad that it happened."
Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768
