Four men have been indicted on arson charges in connection to the burning of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct, the building where the four officers charged in the death of George Floyd had worked, U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald said on Aug. 25.
The four men, “along with unidentified other co-conspirators, breached the fence and entered the Third Precinct building,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
The complaint states that on the night of May 28, a crowd of hundreds of demonstrators had gathered near the building to protest the Floyd’s in-custody death on May 25. All four, along with other unidentified co-conspirators, breached and tore down a fence that was designed to keep trespassers out of the Third Precinct building.
Williams, Turner and Robinson are accused in the indictment of using explosive devices to attempt to set the building on fire.
Robinson and an unidentified person allegedly “lit an incendiary device,” which was then hurled into the precinct by another individual. It was thrown “with the intent that it would start a fire or fuel an existing fire.”
According to the indictment, Williams and Turner “lit a Molotov cocktail,” while Wolfe allegedly pushed a barrel into a fire at the entrance of the building to accelerate an existing fire.
The Justice Department said that Robinson and Wolfe were previously charged via federal criminal complaint with aiding and abetting arson, while Williams was previously charged via criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit arson.
The four men will be arraigned at a later date.
The brothers, according to investigators, livestreamed the incident on Facebook after the building was abandoned by police.
The each face one count of second-degree burglary, and face a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
According to cost estimates released by Hennepin County last month, the precinct will cost around $10 million to rebuild. The city estimates it will also need an additional $289,000 to replace the Third Precinct’s 911 equipment.
