‘Ready to leave Minnesota’: Brooklyn Center residents angered by yet another round of riots

The Sunday death of Daunte Wright was followed by widespread looting and vandalism across Brooklyn Center.

A Dollar Tree in Brooklyn Center was ransacked by rioters in response to Daunte Wright's death.

Some Brooklyn Center residents are “ready to leave” Minnesota after the state was again forced to grapple with back-to-back nights of violent riots.

The Sunday death of Daunte Wright was followed by widespread looting and vandalism across Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis. Former officer Kim Potter was arrested Wednesday morning and will face a charge of second-degree manslaughter for shooting Wright.

“People who live in this area need these stores. We gotta do better for the community,” a Brooklyn Center resident said after rioters destroyed several shops in a local strip mall.

“If we really want to get the police officers, this is not the way to go about it. It’s not. It ain’t doing nothing but hurting us. We already faced the pandemic, we already still fighting the pandemic, now look, we’ve got to wait for the new stores to get renovated,” she said. “It’s crazy. I’m ready to leave from Minnesota, honestly, especially just this area.”

Another resident said he has two sons and has spent time reflecting on Wright’s death, but called the looting and rioting “self-defeating.”

Residents of an apartment building near the Brooklyn Center Police Department’s headquarters, where most of the protest activity has occurred, were filmed yelling at a crowd of agitators Tuesday night.

“These kids ain’t got nothing to do with this. What about the kids?” one man shouted at the crowd, presumably because his children were frightened by the chaos taking place outside their front door.

At a late-night press conference, law enforcement leaders said upwards of 60 people were arrested Tuesday night. They also displayed several items that were thrown at police officers, including bricks, rocks, glass bottles, traffic signs and more.

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Anthony Gockowski

Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.