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Minnesota officials on Wednesday identified the two Minneapolis police officers involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man as chanting demonstrators surrounded a key police station.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety said Minneapolis Police Department Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze were involved in the shooting of Jamar Clark, 24, Sunday. Both men have been police officers for seven years, including 13 months with the city. The officers, whose race was not disclosed, are on administrative leave during an investigation.
Clark is the latest in a series of unarmed black people to be killed at the hands of police in the United States over the past several years, fueling protests nationwide and rekindling a national civil rights movement.
Community activists have said Clark was unarmed and handcuffed when he was shot shortly after midnight on Sunday. Officials confirmed Clark was unarmed but were still investigating whether he was handcuffed.
Lt. Bob Kroll, head of the Minneapolis police union, insisted Clark was not handcuffed. “Cuffs were never on,” he told the Associated Press in an email. Kroll also said the two officers involved in the shooting have no discipline on their records.
Dozens of protesters have camped in front of the north Minneapolis precinct near where the shooting occurred, but on Wednesday police pushed them back from the entryway.
Minneapolis police said they used a “chemical irritant” to control a crowd of protesters outside the precinct office. Police spokesman John Elder said “chemical spray has been coming from both police and the crowd,” according to the AP.
