Nearly three dozen people have been detained after flaming bottles and rocks were thrown at officers during a protest at “Cop City,” a new police training center that’s been the site of prior demonstrations and the death of a protester, Atlanta police said Monday.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a midnight news conference that several pieces of construction equipment were set on fire Sunday in what he called “a coordinated attack” at the site for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in DeKalb County.
It was the latest flare-up in a cause that has drawn to Georgia both anti-police demonstrators and environmentalists who call themselves defenders of the forest.
Protesters dressed in all black threw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks at police officers Sunday at the construction site, police said.
Police from nearby communities stepped in to assist city officers, and no officers were injured, Schierbaum said, adding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined police in the case. Officers used nonlethal enforcement methods to disperse the crowd and detain those involved, he said. Asked about injuries to any of the demonstrators, the chief said that “some minor discomforts” were reported and were being attended to by medical personnel.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will temporarily transfer power to Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan on Monday while he’s under general anesthesia for a colonoscopy, his office said Sunday.
The 58-year-old governor sent a letter Sunday to House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate President Bobby Joe Champion informing them of his plan, as per state law.
The transfer will start at 1 p.m. Monday when the procedure begins and will remain in effect until he sends the legislative leaders a written declaration that he is again able to discharge his duties. He plans to return home later that day to recuperate and is expected back in the office on Tuesday.
False fears of a shooting at a rap concert in Rochester, New York, sent a crowd surging toward the exits in a stampede that killed one person and injured nine others, two of them critically, police said.
The casualties at Sunday night’s concert featuring GloRilla and Finesse2tymes were caused by people being trampled, Police Chief David M. Smith said at a news briefing Monday. “We do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or of anyone being shot or stabbed at the scene,” Smith said.
As the concert at Rochester’s Main Street Armory ended just after 11 p.m., people exiting the venue began to surge dangerously, Smith said. Police made their way inside and found three women with critical injuries, he said.
A 33-year-old woman died at a hospital, and the other two women were in critical condition Monday, police said. Seven additional people were taken to hospitals and treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
Sumaii Gemechu can be reached at sgemechu@stthomas.edu