MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of protesters marched in Minneapolis to demand justice in the fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old man, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died after being restrained by officers in May.
As many as 1,000 demonstrators marched and chanted Sunday near the site where Dolal Idd was killed Wednesday during an attempted felony traffic stop.
Police said Idd was being sought in a weapons investigation. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo released the officers’ body camera video and said it showed Idd fired his gun first.
“I’m encouraged to see that there’s such a huge turnout in solidarity for the brother and his family in the middle of the winter. That shows that there’s actually passion for the youth to really actually engage this indefinitely until there is some real change,” AJ Awed, 30, told the Star Tribune.
“But at the same time, I’m disappointed because we shouldn’t be here,” he added. “After the murder of George Floyd and countless others, I don’t understand how the police could be so careless, you know?”
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, which helped organize the protest, told the crowd the bodycam footage shared by Minneapolis police is “inconclusive” and criticized it for being edited.
The fatal shooting of Idd, a Somali American, happened less than a mile (1.6 kilometres) from the street corner where a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for minutes, even as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. The May 25 death of Floyd, who was Black, sparked days of sometimes violent protests that spread around the country and resonated worldwide.
By The Associated Press