Oakland Police: 2 Federal Officers Shot, 1 Fatally During George Floyd Protest

People walk past graffiti as protesters face off against police during a demonstration ove
Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents were shot — one fatally — Friday night during violent unrest in Oakland, California, as protests spread across America over the case of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned his neck for nearly ten minutes.

“Two Federal Protective Services officers stationed at the Oakland Down Town Federal Building suffered gunshot wounds. Unfortunately, one succumbed to his injury,” Oakland Police told CNN Saturday morning. Federal Protective Services is a division of DHS tasked with defending the federal government’s “critical infrastructure, services, and the people who provide or receive them.”

According to police, over 7,000 protesters demonstrated Friday night and descended into vandalism, damage to businesses, arson, and assaults on several officers.

Interim Chief of Police Susan Manheimer shared a message to social media Saturday morning, urging more Californians to join the protests and keep them peaceful.

[Protests] started out peacefully and we stood with our community here in the city of Oakland to provide safe spaces and respectful spaces for our demonstrators. What we saw later on in the evening turned violent and disruptive, and we want to call on everyone who would come to Oakland and stand with us to respect the memory of George Floyd and the community — to ensure that they are peaceful and are respectful of the city of Oakland and especially our downtown businesses, which have been suffering since the pandemic began.

After several nights of violent riots in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, protesters across the nation destroyed property and assaulted police, and officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators.

In Atlanta, a crowd smashed windows and threw fireworks into the lobby of CNN’s headquarters. In Washington, DC, rioters attacked Breitbart News videographer Matthew Perdie, who was capturing a clash with Secret Service at the White House for a live stream.

Other demonstrations occurred in Portland, OR, Los Angeles, CA, Dallas, TX, Louisville, KY, Charlotte, NC, New York, NY, and Minneapolis — in defiance of an 8 PM curfew order.

Derek Chauvin, one of the four officers involved in Floyd’s detainment, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter Friday afternoon. Chauvin was caught on tape putting his weight on Floyd’s neck as the man pleaded for him to stop and said he could not breathe. All four were fired the day after Floyd’s death.

While announcing the charges, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told reporters that the three other officers remain under investigation.

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