Police in Minneapolis have opened fire at a media team from the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that was attempting to cover the ongoing protests in the northern city after the death of an African-American male in police custody, the broadcaster said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st June, 2020) Police in Minneapolis have opened fire at a media team from the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that was attempting to cover the ongoing protests in the northern city after the death of an African-American male in police custody, the broadcaster said on Monday.
According to the broadcaster, Stefan Simons and a film crew were shot at by police on Sunday evening as they tried to report on an incident that saw a man drive a tanker truck into a crowd of thousands of people on a Minneapolis highway. The driver was later arrested and no protesters were harmed.
Police used non-lethal rounds during the incident, the broadcaster said, adding that Simons was also shot at by police on Saturday evening. The reporter has been harassed numerous times and threatened with arrest while in Minneapolis, the broadcaster stated.
Media crews from around the world have been subject to harassment while attempting to cover the ongoing riots. Mikhail Turgiyev, a journalist from RIA Novosti, a branch of the Rossiya Segodnya Agency that also includes Sputnik, was pepper-sprayed in the face by police on Sunday, despite presenting his press credentials.
The Russian Embassy in the United States has already sent a note of protest to officials in Washington over the incident.
On Friday, CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and an accompanying media team were arrested and later released by law enforcement officers while attempting to cover the riots.
A wave of public unrest, protests, and looting has swept through the United States over the past week, after the death of George Floyd in police custody. On Tuesday, a video went viral showing a white law enforcement officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck after he had been arrested for multiple minutes.
All four officers involved in the arrest have been fired, and Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
