Protests took place in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of a man by U.S. marshals.
Crowds vandalized buildings and stole from businesses in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood after law enforcement officers on a U.S. Marshals Service task force fatally shot a man they were trying to arrest for illegally possessing a gun, authorities said Friday. Authorities did not immediately release the name of the man killed in the shooting Thursday afternoon, but a woman who was in a longtime relationship with him identified him as Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old father of three. The woman, Shelly Hopkins, said Smith, who was Black, had been harassed by police since he was in high school. She feared he had been killed when she heard about the shooting, then saw his vehicle on the news. While she was at the scene she got a call from the medical examiner’s office confirming his death. “We have a very big spiritual connection, and my intuition kicked in and I just had a feeling,” Hopkins said. “I knew something wasn’t right…. I didn’t want to believe it.” Authorities said Friday that members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force were trying to arrest Smith on a warrant for illegally carrying a firearm when he was shot. The Marshals Service said in a Thursday statement that Smith, who was in a parked car, didn’t comply with law enforcement and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject.
