Protests have followed the police shooting of a Black man in Minneapolis, in the United States. Al Jazeera reports that 20-year-old Duante Wright, died shortly after he had been shot, close to where unarmed George Floyd was killed by police last year. Floyd’s death had triggered months long protests against racism and police brutality.

Hundreds of people confronted police in riot gear on Sunday night, just hours after Wright was fatally shot in his car in the suburb of Brooklyn Centre. Police reacted by firing tear gas into the crowd of protesters. Al Jazeera reports that National Guard troops were deployed just before midnight.

Duante’s mother, Katie Wright, had addressed a crowd earlier saying that Duante had called her to say police had pulled him over. She said she could hear officers telling him to put his phone down. An officer then ended the call. She added that soon after that Duante’s girlfriend told her he had been shot.

Katie Wright said, “All he did had was have air fresheners in the car and they told him to get out of the car.” She said Duante’s girlfriend told her the police shot him when he got out of the car. She added, “He got back in the car and he drove away and crashed and now he’s dead on the ground… Nobody will tell us anything. Nobody will talk to us… I said please take my son off the ground.”

Brooklyn Centre police, meanwhile, in a statement, said that Wright had been pulled over on Sunday afternoon for a traffic violation and upon discovering he had an outstanding warrant, police tried to take him into custody. When he got back into his car, one of the officers fired their weapon, striking him. Duante’s vehicle travelled several blocks before colliding with another vehicle. He died at the scene. Police said that a female occupant suffered “non-life-threatening injuries” and was transported to a local hospital.

Al Jazeera reports a witness said that she saw law enforcement officers pull a man out of a vehicle and perform CPR on him, while a passenger who got out of the car had been covered in blood.

meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota in a statement said, “police here appear to have used dangling air fresheners as an excuse for making a pretextual stop, something police do all too often to target Black people. The warrant appears to be for a non-felony.” The Union appealed for the swift release of body-cam footage” and for all the officers involved to be named.

Protesters carried “Black Lives Matter” flags, jumped on top of police cars, challenged officers, and also formed peaceful columns, marching with their hands held up.

Umm Muhammed Umar