A murder suspect in Minneapolis committed suicide as police were about to capture him Wednesday — sparking looting and unrest in a city still reeling from the death of George Floyd.
The man, who is black, shot himself in front of several bystanders outside of a building on Nicollet Mall in the city’s downtown area, the Star Tribune reported.
About 90 minutes after the 6 p.m. suicide, police released city surveillance footage of the incident to demonstrate that it was not a police-involved shooting.
But protesters still made their way downtown. The demonstrations began peacefully. One protester even used a megaphone to tell the crowd “the man killed himself,” the report said.
Once night fell, however, the protests turned violent, with looting and vandalism, according to reports.
A local Fox affiliate reporter, Courtney Godfrey, captured some of the lootings and posted the video to Twitter.
In one clip, looters can be seen entering and exiting a Saks Fifth Avenue on Nicollet Mall through a broken window.
Looters also hit a nearby liquor store and a medical arts building, Godfrey wrote.
The unrest prompted the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, to call in the Minnesota National Guard and issue a curfew, according to the Star Tribune.
“This is a tragic incident for all involved,” the mayor said. “What the city needs now is healing, not more property destruction.”
The man who shot himself was wanted for allegedly murdering a man in a downtown parking garage earlier Wednesday, the report said.
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