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Tear gas and flash bangs fired in Minnesota protest after police shoot Black man

Reuters
MinnesotaUpdated: Apr 13, 2021, 12:47 PM IST
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Minnesota Police officers stand guard outside the Brooklyn Center Police Station after a police officer shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 12, 2021 Photograph:(AFP)

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One of the eyewitnesses, photographer Jonathan Stengenga said it was "surreal" as he wiped tears off his face after running away from cloud of chemical irritants

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as angry protests erupted in a Minneapolis suburb after a 20-year-old Black man was shot dead during a traffic stop.

Outside of the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Sunday night, (April 11) smoke billowed as a line of police officers fired rubber bullets and chemical agents at protesters, some of whom lobbed rocks, bags of garbage and water bottles at the police.

One of the eyewitnesses, photographer Jonathan Stengenga said it was "surreal" as he wiped tears off his face after running away from cloud of chemical irritants.

"They just shot another round of flash bangs, tear gas and pepper (spray) and bullets. Even with this mask it got it into my lungs and eyes. I had one flash bang hit right by my feet," Stengenga said in a video published on his Facebook page.

The man killed by police was identified by relatives and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Daunte Wright, 20. Walz said in a statement that he was monitoring the unrest as "our state mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement."

Commissioner John Harrington of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a live-streamed news briefing that late on Sunday a group of about 100 to 200 protesters gathered around the Brooklyn Center police headquarters and threw projectiles at the police department. The group was later dispersed.