Charlotte Reeling From Days Of Protests, Street Violence

CHARLOTTE, NC — Clean up is underway in Charlotte Monday following three night of intense protest in the wake of the death of Minnesotan George Floyd.

Floyd, 46, died May 25 after being stopped by Minneapolis police investigating a reported forgery. Video from the scene showed former police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on a handcuffed Floyd's neck as Floyd cried out, saying he couldn't breathe.

Chauvin, 44, was arrested Friday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd's death has sparked days of civil unrest in every major city in the country, including in North Carolina.

"The unjust killing of George Floyd less than a week ago, combined with many other recent and distant events, broke open painful wounds," Gov. Roy Cooper said Sunday in a news conference. "These scars mark generations of trauma that black people and other communities of color continue to suffer."

Mayors from Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and Fayetteville have requested — and are receiving — state support through highway patrol, State Bureau of Investigation and the National Guard, Cooper said. Cooper is also urging city leaders to meet with protester organizers to continue communication.

"George Floyd should be alive, along with many others," Cooper said. Protesters in North Carolina cities gathered "to seek justice for them, for themselves and their children, to call for changes to the systemic problems that have allowed racism to endure."

Unfortunately, the cry of the people is being drowned out by the noise of those rioting, and damaging and stealing property, Cooper said.

"We cannot focus so much on the property damage that we forget why people are in the streets in the first place," Gov. Roy Cooper said Sunday in a news conference.

The governor described a pattern that emerged throughout weekend protests in the state: "Protests and demonstrations held earlier in the day remained focused, powerful and non-violent," but turned aggressive, and more disruptive later into the evening.

It was the very scenario that played out in Charlotte Sunday.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Charlotte in an early afternoon protest as part of the "It Ends Now" peaceful demonstration through in Uptown. Organized by Charlotte-area religious leaders, the one-mile march was to demonstrate "unity in ending the silence, inaction, and complicity by many Christians," organizers said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers were on hand at the event, with some walking and kneeling with protesters.

“It ends now for our kids, it ends now for the next generation of leaders, who don’t need to live through this, who don’t need to live in oppression. The trauma ends now,” Mosaic Church pastor Naeem Fazal said at the event, WCCB reported.

After nightfall, however, rioting began for the third night in a row in the Queen City.

Shortly before 11 p.m., fireworks were set off among the crowd of more than 100 amassed on Church Street in Uptown, leading to officers pushing back with shots of tear-gas and pepper-spray projectiles at protesters, according to the Charlotte Observer. Those in the crowd began throwing rocks into windows of businesses and bottles at officers.

"Violent activity is escalating," Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said on social media Sunday evening. "Several protestors throwing bottles and rocks. A dispersal order has been issued to protect lives."

By the early morning hours Monday, 15 protesters were arrested, CMPD said. Of those arrests, four were arrested for assaulting police officers, one was charged with hitting an officer in the face with a rock and three were arrested on illegal weapons charges.

Saturday night, CMPD arrested 30, six of whom were in possession of handguns or rifles.

At least two CMPD officers sustained minor injuries during the weekend's protests.