Minneapolis businesses brace for unrest after Daunte Wright shooting
Business owners have been preparing for the completion of the Derek Chauvin murder trial
Murder trial of former Minneapolis Police Department officer Chauvin continues
The trial of Derek Chauvin, former police officer accused of killing George Floyd, continues.
Business owners in Minneapolis who’ve experienced unrest in the city last year after the death of George Floyd are reportedly preparing for additional uncertainty after the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, in a suburb of the city.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewed business owners in the city who had been preparing for the completion of the Derek Chauvin murder trial.
"It’s time to lock down the city," Tom Roberts, the owner of a shopping center, told the paper. He told the paper that last year’s riots resulted in several million dollars in damage to his property.
Authorities in Brooklyn Center, Minn., announced the arrest of 40 people after an earlier clash with police. Hundreds gathered outside the police department to demand justice for Wright. Police announced at an early morning news conference that five businesses had been burglarized, including a Dollar Tree at a strip mall near the police station.
Businesses in the city have suffered $500 million in damage during the Floyd riots, the paper said. Earlier this month, the city announced plans for a $1 million bailout for businesses suffering under an autonomous zone in George Floyd Square.
A committee with the Minneapolis City Council approved a proposal to repurpose $1 million – roughly half of the city’s budgeted small-business loan pool – for small businesses and nonprofits behind the concrete barricades originally placed by city workers around the square to protect crowds of protesters from vehicular traffic, the Star Tribune reported.
But many businesses in the city are preparing for tense days ahead.
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"They are just going to destroy the city if we don’t stop it now," Roberts told the paper. "Otherwise, why would anybody want to live there or do business there?"
Fox Business' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report