What appeared to start as impromptu demonstrations for George Floyd, the man who died in Minneapolis police custody, turned into a day of scattered arson, looting and significant destruction of retail shops in St. Paul’s Midway and elsewhere in the capital city on Thursday.
The unrest continued into the evening — more than 170 businesses were damaged or looted, and dozens of fires were set, according to police. There were no reports of serious injuries in St. Paul.
Just after 1 a.m. Friday, a fire broke out at Lloyd’s Pharmacy, which dates back to 1918, at Snelling and Minnehaha avenues. A large crowd gathered, many visibly upset the neighborhood business was targeted. By 1:30 a.m., the two-story building was fully engulfed, with several fire crews fighting to contain the flames.
Gov. Tim Walz announced he was calling up the National Guard Thursday afternoon after receiving requests from St. Paul and Minneapolis.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Police Chief Todd Axtell said groups of young people were traveling around the city in groups of up to 20 vehicles — many without license plates in an attempt to go undetected — and breaking into ubusinesses and looting.
Carter said Thursday the “anguish, the anger, the anguish, the sadness, the rage that we’re seeing in the community, it’s understandable. And I think it’s shared by a whole lot of people throughout humanity right now who have looked at that video (of Floyd) and just said, ‘That doesn’t feel like the kind of community, the kind of state, the kind of city, the kind of country, the kind of world that I want to live in.’”
But Carter said his plea was that people channel their energy toward honoring Floyd and preventing something similar from happening again.
Floyd, 46, died Monday after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck when Floyd was handcuffed on the ground. Protests erupted in Minneapolis, and people began looting and setting fires on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, people’s anger also overflowed into St. Paul and other places braced for the potential for unrest.
— Dave Orrick (@DaveOrrick) May 28, 2020
Rosedale Center and Maplewood Mall shut down as a precaution on Thursday, and the Roseville mall will remain closed Friday. Roseville police said several businesses had been impacted by attempted theft and burglaries. And Target announced that 24 of its stores in the Twin Cities are closed until further notice.
The Mall of America was set to officially reopen Monday, after it has been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but tenants were told Thursday that the date will be pushed out and will be announced when it’s finalized.
On St. Paul’s Grand Avenue, where a liquor store had its windows broken out, people boarded up windows on restaurants near Lexington Parkway, also as a precaution. A pawn shop in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood had a window smashed.
Metro Transit suspended bus and rail service in the Twin Cities through the weekend.
All state agencies that operate out of the Capitol complex in St. Paul are closed Friday, state employees have been told.
DISRUPTIONS IN MIDWAY
As the day wore on, all sense of law and order had completely broken down on the commercial stretch of University Avenue east of Snelling Avenue in the Midway neighborhood.
It appears to have started around 11:30 a.m., when St. Paul police were initially called to the Target on University Avenue. They found 50 to 60 people running into the store, grabbing merchandise and running out, said Steve Linders, a police spokesman.
When police arrived, people dropped merchandise and ran away, Linders said, a pattern that would repeat itself countless times throughout the afternoon.
Soon after, some people in the Target parking lot chanted, “No justice, no peace,” and a few held signs. While numerous people said they were there for justice for Floyd, there was no evidence of organized demonstrators. People said they heard on social media and traditional media about people gathering and those present were mostly teens and young adults.
“Can you please put in the paper that people like us are here being peaceful?” pleaded Rhianna Lindsey, who stayed in her vehicle with her son, Jayden, uncomfortable with the situation. “There’s no reason for more violence.”
An officer estimated there were at least 200 people in the University Avenue Target parking lot shortly after 2 p.m., and they described the crowd as increasingly hostile. After police gave orders for people to leave, police used a chemical irritant to disperse the group.
The activity worsened as the day went on, with groups of officers in riot gear responding as people were seen breaking store windows, going inside and taking things, and setting fires. Young drivers sped around parking lots, often with a passenger seated on the passenger door, hanging out the open window, his or her cell phone apparently recording or streaming the scene.
A pattern developed: A store with no police nearby would be looted, starting with teenage or young adult males smashing windows and culminating with a rush of people running in and running out, arms full of merchandise. In one instance, a man repeatedly backed his car into a garage door of Discount Tire, eventually breaking it.
Then the police would come, often dispersing the crowd with gas or projectiles. As they secured the location, looters would hit a different stretch of stores. Once the police left an area, looters would return.
Once inside, some would set fires. There were fires at NAPA Auto Parts, T.J. Maxx, The UPS Store, Furniture Barn and other Midway businesses. The NAPA building collapsed Thursday night.
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A “significant number of businesses were damaged and also looted,” Linders said. The Midway area was hardest hit, but the Sun Ray Shopping Center and Target on Suburban Avenue were also affected, according to police.
In areas where police congregated, a different type of crowd congregated — those with an anti-police message. Some merely hurled insults. But others threw bottles, bricks and flashlight batteries at officers and squad cars. Some cursed at police and said, “You killed him,” presumably referring to Floyd.
Officers released tear gas, less-lethal munitions and mace, Axtell said, “because, again, we have to send a strong message — if you decide that you’re going to take that brick and launch it at an officer, you’re not going to do that without some type of consequence.”
In one instance witnessed by a Pioneer Press reporter, store operators — who had been guarding a tobacco shop earlier — returned as it was being looted. One of the men fired a shotgun in the air, dispersing the looters. No one was hit.
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At New Asia Express on Lexington Parkway, near University Avenue, current and former employees stood guard outside the long-time restaurant on Thursday night.
Jake Nitzschke, 27, went to the restaurant after hearing about the nearby UnBank being looted and came to help his former employer.
“I’m holding down the fort,” he said.
FOCUSED ON ‘PREVENTING LOSS OF LIFE’
City Council President Amy Brendmoen said people are “focused first on preventing loss of life and secondarily preventing loss of property to fire,” according to a Thursday night Facebook post. “They have been trying to make space to allow and accommodate peaceful protests. The hope is to keep crowds calm and not contribute to the escalating tension in the city.”
Earlier in the day, Axtell spoke with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Walz and requested support from the National Guard. Mutual aid from neighboring cities and up to 75 Minnesota State Patrol troopers were also on the way, Axtell said Thursday.
The National Guard announced Thursday night that more than 500 soldiers have been activated to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities.
“Our mission is to protect life, preserve property and the right to peacefully demonstrate,” the National Guard said in a tweet. “A key objective is to ensure fire departments are able to respond to calls.”
The Hamline Midway Coalition and Union Park District Council are planning community clean-ups along University Avenue on Friday.
St. Paul Chamber of Commerce President B Kyle said Thursday that the organization’s “first consideration is the tragic loss and collective grief experienced as a result of the killing of George Floyd. In this context we want safety for all in our community.”
Kyle noted that Minnesota has one of the largest economic disparity gaps in the country.
“This reality, in combination with blatant disregard for life has caused much distress and the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce maintains our commitment to building a prosperous East Metro region that works for all of us,” she said in a statement.
Mara H. Gottfried and Nick Woltman contributed to this report.
