Jamar Clark: Minneapolis police shooting sparks protests

At a few point, an officer fired at least once, hitting the man, police said.

Police and a spokeswoman for the Hennepin County Medical Center said they could not comment on the man’s condition.

As this story was being written, large numbers of police had arrived to begin clearing an activist encampment set up on the lawn in front of the Fourth Precinct since the day Clark was killed.

Protests have continued since then, with tensions escalating again Wednesday night as a crowd outside the precinct office near where Clark was shot grew.

View aerial footage of the protesters here. He also was a community service officer with the Brooklyn Park Police Department for two years, a Mall of America security guard for a month and a member of the Champlin Police Department’s Explorer program for almost three years.

At around 8 p.m., the bottles and gallon jugs that protesters had earlier filled with milk were put into use when officers sprayed chemical irritant at the crowds through the precinct’s fence. The fire was quickly relit.

Reports indicate that the move came after police received calls from people who were unable to access the police precinct Wednesday to make reports.

Chief Janee Harteau said the department has no plans to clear the area or stop the protests as long as they are peaceful. Police said there was a scuffle, and Clark was shot.

Other protesters can be seen shouting at the officers removing the tents. A few protesters blocked our KSTP news crews who were there reporting on the events. Police arrested 51 people on various minor charges. And they say Clark, a suspect in that assault, was interfering with emergency workers trying to treat the victim.

On Thursday, Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension – which is leading an investigation into Sunday’s early-morning incident – named Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze as the officers involved.

The latest in the investigation into the fatal shooting of a black man by Minneapolis police that has sparked days of demonstrations.

Police say Clark was not handcuffed when he was shot, witnesses at the scene, however, beg to differ.

Police initially said he wasn’t handcuffed, but the state agency that’s investigating the shooting, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said one thing it’s looking at is whether Clark was restrained.

Jamar Clark, 24, was shot in the head during a confrontation with two officers Sunday.

“They were macing through the entirety of the night”, says BLM spokeswoman Lena Gardner. A few community members have alleged that he was handcuffed when he was shot.

The department also brings investigators with national experience in these types of cases, which the state doesn’t have.

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has issued a statement claiming that Clark was “murdered, execution style”.

“This is what this is all about you know standing for what you believe in”, said Clark’s brother, Eddie Sutton.

“The young man was just laying there; he was not resisting arrest”, barber shop owner Teto Wilson, who witnessed the incident, said in a statement released through the Minneapolis NAACP.

“Everything that happened to him, he did not deserve”, said Burns, backed by others in her family.

Meanwhile, Clark’s father was at the protests outside the 4th Precinct.

Black Lives Matter and others assembled promptly after reports of the shooting and have since been camped outside the MPD’s 4th Precinct station.

Members of the organization Communities United Against Police Brutality are planning to attend the Minneapolis City Council meeting on Friday to “demand change from our elected officials”, according to the organization’s Facebook page. However, Minnesota BCA superintendent Drew Evans told reporters that none of the footage captures the entire shooting, and video won’t be released until the investigation is complete.