Unruly protesters at the Brooklyn Center Police District in Minnesota chased away a CNN camera crew that was covering the killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by former police Officer Kim Potter. The media members were pelted with eggs, and one CNN employee was knocked off his feet after being hit in the head with a water bottle on Wednesday.
While covering the fourth day of protests over the death of Wright, a CNN crew was harassed and assaulted by some of the people participating in the demonstration. Video taken by Washington Examiner reporter Nic Rowan shows a member of the CNN crew being struck in the head with a water bottle, which caused him to fall to the ground.
Some of the protesters mocked and laughed at the man being injured, “A bottle of water knocked you out?” Another person ridiculed the man by saying he was “fainting from some water.”
Some demonstrators called for a medic to attend to the CNN employee, but he got up and said, “I’m fine. It’s all good, people. No worries.”
Footage from the tense scene shows protesters chase away the CNN crew. Someone in the crowd screams, “Get the f*** out of here!” Eggs were hurled at the CNN crew as they briskly walked to their car to escape the mob that was following them.
“We’re leaving. We don’t want any trouble,” the man who was hit with the water bottle told the crowd. The vehicle was battered with eggs as they drove away.
CNN reporter Miguel Marquez gave an update on Twitter. “My team and I are fine and I appreciate your concern,” Marquez wrote. “I hope for equal justice under the law and will continue to report on this vital story as it unfolds.”
Earlier, Marquez noted that “tensions already higher at the front gate of the Brooklyn Center PD.”
A protester held a severed pig head in the air in front of police officers to taunt them.
“Officers launch flash bangs at the crowd and spray a wall of umbrellas pushing up against the fence,” wrote video journalist Brendan Gutenschwager.
An unlawful assembly was declared at the Brooklyn Center Police Department on Wednesday night.
On the fourth day of protests against police brutality in Brooklyn Center, 24 people were arrested, according to Minnesota State Patrol Colonel Matt Langer.
Also on Wednesday, former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. Porter, a 26-year veteran of the force, was later was released from jail on a $100,000 bond, the Washington Examiner reported.
*story by The Blaze
