The footage shows officers celebrating the “hunting” of protesters.
Newly released body camera footage shows Minneapolis police officers allegedly celebrating the “hunting” of anti-police brutality protesters just five days after the murder of George Floyd.
In one video, a protester yells: “We’re unarmed! This is America. We can say what we want!”
In response, an officer appears to shoot at the protester with rubber bullets.
Floyd’s death set off months of protests against police violence and racism. The city of Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed by then-MPD officer Derek Chauvin, set a curfew in response to the unrest.
The body cam footage released to the public by the court captures the police department’s enforcement of the 8 p.m. curfew: Officers firing rubber bullets at numerous people out on the streets in an attempt to forcefully clear them of demonstrators. Some officers can be seen and heard celebrating and even fist-bumping over their successful hits.
In the recording, one officer can be heard saying: “You guys are out hunting people now. It’s just a nice change of tempo.”
Shortly after, another officer comments: “F— these people.”
In another video, an officer says: “I would love to scatter [the protesters] but it’s time to f—— put 100 people in jail and just prove the mayor wrong about his white supremacist from out of state,” referring to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s comments about white supremacists and out-of-state instigators.
The officer later adds, “This group is probably predominantly white because there’s not looting and fires.”
Due to an ongoing internal investigation into the actions of officers seen in the videos, the Minneapolis Police Department declined ABC News’ request for comment.
The footage was introduced as part of the criminal case against Jaleel Stallings, who was accused of trying to kill police officers but has since been acquitted of all charges, according to his attorney Eric Rice.
The 27-year-old faced two counts of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, one count of second-degree assault and three other charges for firing a gun at an unmarked police van. No officers were injured.
Stallings argued that he fired at the unmarked police van in self-defense. In an affidavit, Stallings said that other people were running from the unmarked van and warned him of people shooting from the vehicle. He said that after being hit by a rubber bullet himself, he used his gun to shoot the vehicle in an attempt to scare the attackers off.
