4 men charged with felonies in the shooting of 5 protesters in Minneapolis
Prosecutors filed felony charges today against four men allegedly involved in the Nov. 23rd shooting of five people who were near a Minneapolis police station to protest the police shooting of a black man, the Associated Press reports.
Prosecutors say Allen Lawrence Scarsella, 23, fired the shots that left five protesters with non-life-threatening wounds. He is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and riot. Three men who accompanied him were each charged with one count of riot. They are: Nathan Wayne Gustavsson, 21; Joseph Martin Backman, 27; and Daniel Thomas Macey, 26. Macey is of Asian descent; the three other men are white.
Scarsella is being held on $500,000 bond, and the others on $250,000 each. The AP report says a search warrant notes that Scarsella called a high-school friend who now is a police officer in Mankato, Minnesota, and confessed to the shootings. The document said he told the officer that he and some friends went to the protest to do a livestream video and that the incident occurred when protesters tried to remove them from the area. The officer told investigators that Scarsella has negative views of African-Americans and considers himself a sovereign citizen, the AP reports.
The criminal complaint says that Scarsella had also visited the protest four days before the shooting, dressed in camouflage and a face mask, and made a video “that contained derogatory terms,” according to the AP. The group of men arrived at the protest on the 23rd intending to stir up trouble, according to the criminal complaint.
Protesters have been camping outside the police precinct since Jamar Clark was fatally shot in the head by police on November 15.
On that day, an ambulance had been called after Clark and his girlfriend argued, and when paramedics were taking her away, police say, and Clark returned and disrupted the attempt to aid her, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported earlier.
Some witnesses say Clark was handcuffed at the time he was shot; a police union official denied that and said Clark was trying to take the officer’s gun. One of the officers involved is currently facing a lawsuit alleging excessive force in a separate incident in 2011.
Also today, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges asked the protesters to close the encampment because their campfires are fouling the neighborhood’s air and their barricades are blocking emergency vehicles and snowplows, the AP reports.
After charges were filed today against the four, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said the felony charges carry tougher penalties than possible hate-crime charges. He also said it’s possible that federal prosecutors could bring related charges.
Updated on Dec. 1 to correct an instance where Daniel Thomas Macey’s last name was misspelled.
