MINNEAPOLIS • Violent protests flared overnight in several cities in the United States as demonstrators vented their anger over the killing of Mr George Floyd, a black man who died last week after being pinned down by the neck by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
From Minneapolis to New York City, Atlanta and Washington, protesters clashed with police in a rising tide of anger over the treatment of minorities by law enforcement.
The demonstrations broke out for a fourth night despite prosecutors announcing on Friday that the policeman filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, had been arrested on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
Three other officers have been fired and are being investigated in connection with last Monday's incident, which reignited rage that civil rights activists said has long simmered in Minneapolis and cities across the country over persistent racial bias in the US criminal justice system.
In Detroit late on Friday, a 19-year-old man was shot dead in a demonstration by a suspect who fired from a sport utility vehicle, then fled, local media reported. Police could not immediately be reached for comment.
In Oakland, California, a Federal Protective Service officer was killed and another injured in a shooting amid protests on Friday.
"Two Federal Protective Service officers... suffered gunshot wounds. Unfortunately, one succumbed to his injury," CNN quoted the police department as saying.
Many of the protesters chanted, "No justice, no peace", and some carried signs that read, "End police brutality" and "I won't stop yelling until everyone can breathe".
In the video of the incident involving Mr Floyd and police, filmed by a bystander, the 46-year-old could be heard repeatedly pleading with the officers and telling them he could not breathe. He was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Thousands of chanting protesters filled the streets of New York City's Brooklyn borough near the Barclays Centre indoor arena. Police armed with batons and pepper spray made scores of arrests in sometimes violent clashes.
In lower Manhattan, demonstrators at a "We can't breathe" vigil and rally were pressing for legislation outlawing the police "chokehold" used by a city police officer in the 2014 death of Mr Eric Garner, another black man.
In Washington, police and Secret Service agents were out in force around the White House before dozens of protesters gathered across the street in Lafayette Square.
President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter early yesterday that he had watched the whole thing from his window, and if the demonstrators had breached the fence, "they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen".
"That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action."
In Atlanta, Ms Bernice King, the youngest daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr, implored people to go home on Friday night after more than 1,000 protesters marched to the state capitol from the Centennial Olympic Park, blocking traffic and an interstate highway along the way.
The protest turned violent at points. Fires burned near the CNN Centre, the network's headquarters, and windows were smashed at its lobby. At least one police car was among several vehicles burned. Police pushed back the crowd, but they hurled bottles at officers.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in Atlanta and activated the Georgia National Guard, sending as many as 500 soldiers to guard property, as the protests moved from downtown to the affluent Buckhead neighbourhood.
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Who are George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery?
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GEORGE FLOYD
Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American restaurant worker, died in the northern city of Minneapolis last Monday while in police custody, sparking protests.
A bystander video of an encounter between Mr Floyd and police shows the handcuffed man lying on the ground, gasping and saying, "Please I can't breathe", as a white policeman presses his knee on Mr Floyd's neck after detaining him for allegedly using a counterfeit US$20 (S$28) bill.
The officer pinned Mr Floyd's neck to the ground for about eight minutes, until he grew still. He was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later.
Four police officers involved in the incident, including Derek Chauvin, the one who pressed his knee into Mr Floyd's neck, were fired the next day. Chauvin was charged with murder on Friday.
AHMAUD ARBERY
Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was killed on Feb 23 in broad daylight while jogging in Brunswick in Georgia.
A video shows Mr Arbery running down a residential street and approaching a white truck that had stopped in the right lane, with a man standing in the back. As Mr Arbery tries to get around the vehicle, he is confronted by a second man holding a shotgun. An altercation between the two ensues and three shots can be heard.
Two white men - retired police officer Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34 - were arrested earlier this month over the shooting and charged with murder and aggravated assault.
Another man, William Bryan Jr, 50, who shot the video, has been charged with murder and attempted false imprisonment.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
Protesters also took to the streets in other cities, including Denver, Houston and Louisville, Kentucky.
In Minneapolis, hundreds of protesters defied an 8pm curfew to gather in the streets around a police station burned the previous night.
"We are out here because we, as a generation, realise things have to change," said one marcher, Mr Paul Selman, a 25-year-old black man.
Still, Friday night's crowds were far smaller and more widely dispersed than the night before. Law enforcement kept a mostly low profile, a strategy seemingly calculated to reduce the risk of violent confrontations, as was the case in several urban centres across the country where sympathy protests arose.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, in announcing Chauvin's arrest, said the investigation into Chauvin, who faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, was ongoing.
Mr Freeman also anticipated charging the three other police officers, identified by the city as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng.
REUTERS
