Protest movements are growing in the U.S. following the death of the African American Minneapolis citizen George Floyd, who died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, put his knee on his neck while arresting him. Indianapolis police said that two people have died after several shootings took place during downtown violence that started Saturday and extended into early Sunday.
As per the reports, one of the deadly shootings happened in the area on late Saturday, while the second one took place around 2:30 am Sunday. As reported by the Associated Press, the Indianapolis police said that no officers were involved in those incidents.
Two died in Indianapolis shootings
It should be noted that what exactly led to the death of those two unnamed people, was not immediately clear, mentioned Patrolman Michael Hewitt, a police spokesman. He added that "We don't have any way to link them, at this time, to any type of protest or anything. We don't know if they are separate incidents or really what they are."
After the death of the first person during the second night of protests over the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as per IndyStar, Police Chief Randal Taylor said late Saturday that "Indianapolis, we are better than this. Downtown is not safe at this time. Residents who do not live in the downtown area, we're asking to please vacate the area."
At that time the police department also denied the deceased person was shot by the police and refused to offer any further details. Taylor said at the press conference that on Saturday evening, the officers worked to protect local residents' right to peaceful protests. He mentioned that most of these protestors cooperated and did a "fine job" and "For that, we're thankful."
While explaining the situation he also mentioned that there was a small group of people that escalated to violent acts, which included "throwing projectiles at officers and breaking windows of government buildings. Since then, we have seen continued and escalating incidents of violence. This includes shots fired and loss of life." However, it was also revealed that there were some people who did not have the intention to carry out a peaceful protest like others. It was mentioned that the intention of those people was to trigger a riot.
Indianapolis Incident
As per reports, peaceful protests took a dangerous turn on the second night in Indianapolis as windows of numerous buildings were broken, and people entered some stores to steal items, which led to the deployment of tear gas by police officers, telling the remaining protesters they had formed an "unlawful assembly."
A fire incident also caused massive damage to a pharmacy. Fires burned in several large dumpsters pushed into streets of Indianapolis, said, local officers. Six people were arrested after the protesters entered the City-County Building around 9 pm on Saturday.
