On his way home from a protest Friday night in Minneapolis, Jonathan Turner Bargen encountered a white man in a red pickup truck. The man was carrying an assault rifle and a handgun, Turner Bargen said. Then he noticed a symbol from the far-right militia group Three Percenters affixed to the truck.
“I circled back and took pictures of the vehicle. I was concerned about why they were present at the downtown protest, and had no idea who to notify,” said Turner Bargen in an email to MPR News.
State officials, protesters and residents say they’re alarmed by the presence of extremists who may be using Twin Cities protests against the police killing of George Floyd as cover to burn down buildings and face off with law enforcement. Hundreds of buildings have been damaged and many totally burned in recent days.
Gov. Tim Walz said state officials estimated that 80 percent of the people involved in the violence and destruction were from outside the state.
But according to an analysis of Hennepin County jail records, 83 percent of people who were booked in connection with the protests over a 24-hour stretch starting Friday were from Minnesota, and 56 percent were from Minneapolis or St. Paul.
Walz said that what began as peaceful demonstrations in response to the killing of George Floyd in police custody on May 25 have turned into something else.
“The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” Walz said at a morning news conference. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear, and disrupting our great cities.”
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said Saturday morning that none of the people arrested in St. Paul Friday night were from Minnesota. However, after MPR News requested arrest records, police confirmed that seven of the 18 people arrested in connection to the protests from Friday night to early Saturday morning were from Minneapolis or St. Paul. Four came from Wisconsin, Texas and North Dakota.
Carter corrected himself later in the day, saying he had been given inaccurate information.
