A woman was killed and three people injured after a car drove into protesters in Minneapolis on Sunday, according to police.
Minneapolis Police
said in a statement that, shortly before midnight, someone had driven into protesters in the area of Lake Street and Girard Avenue, and that the driver had been taken into custody.
In a
follow-up statement, police said that the injuries to the three individuals were non-life-threatening, while the woman, who has not been named, died after being transported to the hospital.
The driver was being treated for injuries,
police said, adding that investigators have not yet determined a motive.
A witness told
Minneapolis Public Radio that the driver appeared to accelerate as the vehicle got closer to demonstrators who had blocked off part of the street.
D.J. Hooker told the outlet that the “car came at us going like 70 or 80 miles an hour,” adding that driver ”went even faster as he approached us. You could hear it ... start going even faster as he got close to us.”
Witnesses cited by the outlet said the vehicle, an SUV, hit a parked car hard enough to send it flying towards bystanders.
“The car went through the air and it hit a young woman,” Hooker said.
Video
posted on social media showed people detaining what appeared to be the injured driver, with a witness heard saying, “he just came through at a hundred miles an hour, smashed the car,” and “killed her.” Another video
showed the aftermath of the incident, including people restraining the driver.
The Uptown neighborhood where the incident took place has
been the scene of protests after U.S. Marshalls earlier this month shot dead a black man, Winston Boogie Smith Jr., who was wanted on a weapons violation and fired a gun before two deputies shot him.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force were trying to arrest Smith on a warrant for allegedly being a felon in possession of a gun, according to authorities. The Marshals Service said in a statement that Smith, who was in a parked vehicle, didn’t comply with law enforcement and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject.”
Minneapolis saw an outbreak of unrest in the days following the June 3 shooting, after a vigil and protests the following day devolved into chaotic scenes of looting, arson, and vandalism.
