Man charged in shooting attack on Minneapolis protesters

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced second-degree assault and second-degree riot charges against one and second-degree riot charges against three others involved in a shooting at a Minneapolis protest, but stopped short of issuing hate crime charges. Joseph Backman, Nathan Gustavsson, and Daniel Macey were charged with second-degree riot.

“These four individuals violently impacted people’s rights to demonstrate”, Freeman said at a news conference.

Minnesota prosecutors have charged four men with felonies for shooting Black Lives Matter activists protesting the death of Jamar Clark, a Minneapolis man who was allegedly killed while handcuffed. The 23-year-old stands accused of shooting and injuring five Black Lives Matter supporters on November 23. Witnesses said they saw three people wearing masks who left the crowd and began walking down the street. According to the criminal complaint, all 4 have admitted in jail phone conversations that they were present at the time of the shootings.

Police say they shot Clark while responding to a domestic abuse call after an altercation erupted with the suspect, and he reached for one of the officer’s guns. Users on 4chan are reacting to the news of Scarsella’s arrest with their usual thoughtfulness and racial sensitivity.

When police arrived at his home later that day, they found “numerous” weapons, including a 45-caliber handgun “consistent with the type of discharged cartridge casings found at the shooting scene”, charging papers said. The officer encouraged Scarsella to turn himself in and turn over his guns, and the officer described Scarsella’s opinions as “being a sovereign citizen and pro-Constitution”, according to the statement of probable cause.

On and on she goes, telling the man his kids will hate him when they get older and his wife will probably sleep with one of his coworkers – it’s not clear if the woman knows the officer.

Levy-Pounds and others continue to demand that authorities immediately release video collected of the Jamar Clark shooting.

Before the attack, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis had warned of militant white supremacist threats, but received little support from police and local authorities. “We can take the sidewalk”, he said.

Questions have been raised over whether Clark was handcuffed when he was shot, which police have denied.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating whether Schwarze and Mark Ringgenberg violated state laws in Clark’s death.

The lawsuit alleges that when Schwarze worked for Richfield police he used a stun gun on a vehicle passenger during a December 2011 traffic stop.

Two other officers and the city of Richfield also are named in the lawsuit, which gained media attention when it was moved from Hennepin County District Court to U.S. District Court last week. It also accuses Schwarze of threatening to beat that passenger and another if they exited the vehicle.