Photos: Looting devastates Twin Cities after George Floyd's death
Minneapolis police clashed with protesters for a second night
Updated: 3:03 p.m.
Violent protests over the death of George Floyd broke out in Minneapolis for a second straight night, as businesses were looted and buildings burned.
By Thursday afternoon, St. Paul police were confronting protesters and looters in the city’s Midway neighborhood as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said that while the vast majority of protesters were peaceful, there was looting happening as well as “significant property damage” and the “creation of Molotov cocktails.”
He later added that the demonstrations in Floyd’s name had been "hijacked" by some protesters and looters engaged in "criminal conduct."
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Ingebretsen's, a gift store and meat market that’s been a fixture on Lake Street since the 1920s, was among those damaged.
“It’s like a war came through here last night,” said Julie Ingebretsen, the granddaughter of the store’s founders. “Our windows were broken. I don’t think so much taking stuff, but just knocking shelves over, throwing stuff around, rummaging through drawers. It’s just destruction. And it makes me so sad, I can hardly stand it.”
Reporting from Lake Street Thursday morning, MPR News’ Jon Collins described the damage as “unbelievable devastation.”
“There's an industrial building across the street from me that's smoking. There's affordable housing that was being built that is still on fire ... there is a Wendy's that is completely demolished in the parking lot. Target has been looted. Cub has been looted ... and blockades everywhere,” he said.
“People are stunned by what this looks like. This is every day life, this is the grocery store, this is Target, this is fast food places, things people are really used to. They can't believe it's sitting there smoking and burning and there are helicopters above us and sirens going off,” he said. “It's just really, really hard to take in.”