Violent Protests Erupt in Cities Across the US, One Dead in Texas

Federal buildings and local police precincts were damaged and one person was fatally shot when riots and lawlessness erupted in cities across the United States Saturday night, several news outlets have reported.

The fatal shooting occurred in Austin, Texas, where the Austin-American Statesman reported that around 9:50 local time, during a protest, police said “a man carrying a weapon approached a vehicle, but a person inside the vehicle fatally shot the man.” The Statesman reported that “Police were in contact with the shooter, who was cooperating with authorities. One witness said the victim was well known to many protesters, and a group of people was seen grieving at the scene.”

Several protests and violent demonstrations have occurred in the U.S. since the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who died while in police custody. A video of the May 25, 2020, encounter with police officers showed a white officer putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd died later that day.

In Portland, Oregon, Saturday, protests continued for the 50th consecutive day since Floyd’s death. “Protesters broke through a reinforced fence surrounding the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in the downtown area,” OregonLive.com reported.

The website reported that federal agents assigned to guard the building deployed tear gas and the Portland police declared the scene a riot around 1:15 a.m. local time.

Media reports say that “hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Oakland, California, smashing windows of the city’s police headquarters and setting a fire inside the Alameda County courthouse.

The Omaha World-Herald reported that “between 75 and 80 protesters were taken into custody after police declared an unlawful assembly” in Omaha, Nebraska.

The report said “the crowd started blocking traffic around 9:15 p.m. and police were seeing Facebook posts suggesting that damage was being planned for the downtown area.”

Omaha Police capt. Mark Matuza told the newspaper that “It leaned toward the potential of getting violent.”

And in Aurora, Colorado, a vehicle drove through a crowd of marchers along Interstate 225, and one person was struck by the vehicle and was taken to the hospital, The Guardian reported.