'Domestic terrorism': 5 People shot during Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis

Future demonstrations are planned despite safety precautions.

Protesters were standing outside the 4th Precinct in Minneapolis for Black Lives Matter in the case of 24-year-old Jamar Clark when gunshots rang out.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) -Five protesters were shot outside the police station Tuesday afternoon as one person opened fire.

 Police initially announced their search for "three white male suspects" who fled the scene following the shooting and by Tuesday afternoon two suspects were in custody. 

One 32-year-old Hispanic man and a 23-year-old white man were arrested in relation to the shooting but officials have yet to release further details.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges took to social media, where she wrote, "We are sparing no efforts to bring any and all those responsible to justice," adding that the shootings were "abhorrent."

In response to the shooting, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis wrote, "Tonight, white supremacists attacked the #4thPrecinctShutDown in an act of domestic terrorism."

Clark's family has requested an end to the protests but Black Lives matter Minneapolis plans to return on Tuesday for another demonstration despite the shooting and safety concerns.

Black Lives MPLS posted a message on Twitter, indicating they would now stand down: "Wear all black tomorrow. 2pm at the precinct. We will not be intimidated. #4thPrecinctShutDown."

Federal authorities were notified of the shooting and have since begun investigations alongside the Minneapolis Police Department, who stated, "The Department of Justice is aware of the incident and is coordinating with the Minneapolis Police Department to assess the evidence and determine if federal action is appropriate."

A video produced by a journalist at the scene revealed people running and screaming for an ambulance while a young African American man can be seen on the ground in pain presumably from a gunshot wound. Protesters, and eventually police and paramedics arrived and attempted to help. 

Henry Habu, a nearby resident claimed he was present during the shooting, in which three men and a woman in ski masks filmed the demonstration. When Habu asked why they were filming, the group refused to provide a direct answer.

Though there were few details, Habu believes the group fit the description of white supremacists other protesters warned about. He claimed that when the mask-wearing people walked away, protesters followed and "They tried to fight. There was a scuffle."

When members of the community attempted to calm the group, including Carrie Brown, Brown said "One of the white protesters who had been with us since the beginning said, 'Be careful, those guys are white supremacists.' We asked them to remove their masks, asked who they were, invited them to come and protest with us peacefully once they did that," adding, "One of our young men reached out and touched one of them and said, 'Oh he has a vest on' like a bulletproof vest."

One witness, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, "About midway down the block the group sort of thinned out and I said, 'Maybe we should turn around, not make them feel like we're all up on them,' and the minute I turned around I heard four shots. One whizzed right by me. I was going to get down but then I just ran."

When the shots rang out, Brown said she turned and say "four boys on the ground." She began to help one who had been shot in the leg and said, "He just kept saying, 'Don't leave me, don't leave me.'"

Witnesses claim police used pepper spray on people who were trying to help in an attempt to separate victims from the group so emergency responders could reach them, but Brown said an officer pointed a gun at her head and told her to move back.

"I couldn't move," she recalled. "He [the gunshot victim] had his hands wrapped around me. They pried his hands off of me."

The victims were taken to North Memorial Medical Center and two were transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where police described their wounds as non-life-threatening.

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