George Floyd Protest Molotov Cocktail Suspects Arraigned

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Molotov cocktails provided an explosive end to once-peaceful Brooklyn protests last week over the killing of George Floyd — and now a pair of lawyers and an upstate woman stand separately accused of setting NYPD vehicles aflame.

Samantha Shader, a Catskills woman, sat through a teleconference arraignment Monday marred by technical difficulties. But the glitches cleared enough for her to hear the federal charge of destruction of a police vehicle by fire.

Minutes later, Urooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis, two attorneys, had their own arraignments on the same charge. Their public defenders successfully argued for bail and home detention, while Shader — who has a criminal record — likely will remain jailed until at least June 12.

The separate, but similar criminal cases stem from a long night following a Friday rally that started at Barclays Center against police brutality and in memory of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died with a cop's knee on his neck.

It began peacefully but took a turn after police stepped up their response after a few crowd members threw water bottles at them, witnesses said. Eventually, police pepper sprayed the crowd and beat several protesters with batons.

The demonstration left the Barclays Center and into surrounding neighborhoods, in which scenes of violence by police and some crowd members unfolded at a near-constant clip.

Shader is accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail into a police car parked in Crown Heights early Saturday while four officers sat inside, according to court documents. The officers managed to chase Shader down and arrest her, documents state.

Rahman and Mattis are accused of driving a minivan full of Molotov cocktails through Brooklyn, at times offering them to protesters, documents state. Rahman threw one at a police van in Fort Greene and hopped in the van driven by Mattis, which cops followed and stopped, according to documents.

Prosecutors argued all three defendants should remain in jail, but a magistrate gave Rahman and Mattis a chance for release on $250,000 bail and home detention. Rahman's public defenders stressed that this was her first criminal case, her successful career as a human rights attorney and her mother's need for care.

Mattis, a Princeton grad, works at the Pryor Cashman LLP law firm.

Hearings for all three will continue on June 12.