Police arrest 8 Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis where black man shot dead

Police have arrested Black Lives Matter demonstrators and tore down a protest camp set up outside their Minneapolis precinct after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.

Jamar Clark, 24, was shot in the head by police last month while allegedly wearing handcuffs, according to witnesses. He died the next day.

His death sparked a wave of political protests and demonstrators, led by the local Black Lives Matter group, have camped outside the 4th Precinct station since the November 15 shooting.

Now police have ripped down the campsite and have erected their own high fence to keep future protesters out.

‘It was time,’ Mayor Betsy Hodges said at a news conference. ‘We have been balancing the safety needs of the precinct with the right for people to protest and have their voices be heard.’

Black Lives Matter protesters marched from City Hall to Elsie for the Police Officers Federation in northeast Minneapolis, on Thursday to demand answers after police ripped down their encampment.

Authorities had been arguing for an end to the protest camp after three white ‘supremacists’ opened fire at a rally for Clark.

Five people were rushed to hospital after the attack, but their injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

But the Black Lives Matter demonstrations had continued – until Thursday.

Authorities brought in dump trucks to clear the campsite and its makeshift barricades, while seven people were arrested during the eviction for obstructing the legal process.

Another was arrested for trespassing, Police Chief Janee Harteau said. Nobody was injured.

More than 50 people have been arrested since the protests began.

About 200 protesters and their supporters regrouped at 4pm inside Minneapolis’ City Hall, and speakers continued to press their demands for the release of videotapes and racial equity.

The protesters then took to the streets, chanting and disrupting traffic in downtown Minneapolis.

Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis NAACP and a protest leader, said before the rally that the raid would have ‘a chilling effect on free speech’ but vowed that the city hadn’t heard the last from protesters.

A federal investigation is underway into the shooting of Clark after witnesses claimed they had seen a police officer shoot him in the head after the 24-year-old was handcuffed.

A young schoolboy, speaking to Daily Mail Online with his mother’s permission, described how he observed the shooting from his front door, around 15 yards away, after hearing the commotion of Clark being arrested.

Ze’Morion Dillon-Hokins, 10, said he had been playing video games on his PS4 when he heard shouting and then saw Clark trying to gain access to the ambulance where his girlfriend was being treated.

‘They asked him to step back. He was saying ‘f*** you’ to them.’

He said Clark put his hands up when police officers approached him and he was handcuffed.

The 24-year-old was ‘choke-slammed down’ by the officers right outside his front door, he said.

‘Then they took out a gun and ‘popped’ him in the face. He took two more breaths. I saw the smoke from the gun.’

He told representatives from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, that Jamar Clark was  face down when he was shot and the officers ‘flipped him over’ after the gun had been discharged.

Ze’Morion said before Clark was dragged to an ambulance, one handcuff was removed while the other remained on a wrist.

A wooden stick, placed by investigators, marked the spot on Plymouth Avenue North where the incident happened, directly in front where the boy lives with his family.

Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze were suspended on full pay following the shooting.

Ze’Morion’s mother Tequila Dillon, 31, who has four other children, said: ‘He was in shock afterwards. He was at home playing on his PS4 when he heard something was going on and went outside to see what it was.

‘He saw it all and it has upset him. He came in and fell right over and said: “They are killing us.”‘

‘I hope what he has told the police and the Bureau will help everybody get to the truth.

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