The Latest: No arrests in shooting in Seattle protest zone

By The Associated Press 22 June 2020, 12:00AM

TOP OF THE HOUR:

— No arrests in shooting in Seattle protest zone that killed 1.

— A statue of a Spanish missionary in downtown Los Angeles has been toppled by demonstrators.

— George Washington memorial vandalized in Baltimore.

— Three men in California arrested in investigation of Black Lives Matter sign.

— North Carolina spectators cheer removal of Confederate statue.

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Seattle police on Sunday pursued their investigation into a weekend shooting in the city’s protest zone that killed a 19-year-old man and critically injured another person.

No arrests had been made.

An “active and ongoing” investigation was under way into the shooting, which occurred about 2:30 a.m. Saturday in an area near downtown known as CHOP, for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone, said Detective Mark Jamieson. The suspect or suspects fled the scene, and police asked the public for any information that could identify them.

The zone evolved after weeks of protests in the city over police brutality and racism following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Video released later Saturday by police appears to show officers arriving at the protest zone saying they want to get to the victim and entering as people yell at them that the victim is already gone. Police mostly retreated from the zone after clashes with protesters, KIRO-TV reported.

Private vehicles took two males with gunshot wounds to Harborview Medical Center, where the 19-year-old man died and the other person was in critical condition in the intensive care unit. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office had yet to release the identity of the dead man.

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ROME — Premier Giuseppe Conte says Italy is watching closely, and with concern, as Black Lives Matter protests sweep across American cities, particularly as the U.S. is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Conte was asked at a news conference Sunday to comment on the killing of George Floyd by a white policeman and the protests that have occurred in the aftermath.

Conte said the protests had “touched the raw nerve of racial discrimination in American society,” while reflecting problems of inequality, suffering and marginalization among certain facets of the population.

He said violent protests “are never admissible” and that Italy respected the internal matters of its longtime ally. But he said Italy was following “closely, and with concern what is happening in the U.S., at a time when our American friends are dealing with a pandemic that is causing so many victims.” Italy has had a handful of peaceful rallies in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

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PORTLAND, Ore. — A peaceful protest in Portland against racial injustice turned violent early Sunday after baton-wielding police used flash-bang grenades to disperse demonstrators throwing bottles, cans and rocks at sheriff’s deputies near downtown’s Justice Center, police said.

Portland police and Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies arrested several people after a group of protesters pulled down a fence cordoning off the center, tossed objects including fireworks at officers and ignored repeated warnings to disperse, police said in a statement. It said some people shined lasers into the eyes of deputies.

Officers used “crowd control munitions” to clear an area west of the center, which has been a flashpoint for conflicts between demonstrators and police.

The confrontation occurred after protesters demonstrated peacefully for several hours late Saturday in Chapman Square on the Justice Center’s west side. Some protesters tried to re-erect parts of the fence torn down by others.

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LOS ANGELES — A statue of a Spanish missionary in downtown Los Angeles has been toppled by demonstrators.

The Los Angeles Times reports the statue of Father Junipero Serra in Father Serra Park was brought down Saturday by Indigenous activists who shouted and drummed as it flew off its pedestal.

No police were present.

The 18th century Roman Catholic priest founded nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions. Native Americans were forced to stay at those missions after they were converted or face brutal punishment. A statue of Serra was also toppled in San Francisco on Friday while statues on the East Coast honoring Confederates have been pulled down. ___

PINE BLUFF, Ark. — A Confederate statue has been removed from outside the Jefferson County courthouse in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and will be moved to a Confederate cemetery in the city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Little Rock.

The 20-foot statue of a Confederate infantryman that was first placed outside Pine Bluff High School in 1910 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and moved to the courthouse in 1974 was taken down Saturday.

The statue owned by the Confederacy group is being moved as demonstrators have defaced and toppled statues and busts of former U.S. presidents, a Spanish missionary and Confederate figures as protests against police brutality and racism continued across the country.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In America’s oldest city, a debate over history is looming, as residents and elected officials join the anguished reckoning over race that is now gripping much of the country.

At the center of the debate in St. Augustine, Florida, is a monument, located in the city’s historic central plaza, memorializing dozens of the city’s sons who died fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The towering structure, which was built in 1879, takes the form of an obelisk jutting into a canopy of oak trees. Inscribed on it are the names of the fallen soldiers.

The Rev. Ron Rawls, a pastor at St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, calls the monument disrespectful and wants it removed. The City Commission is expected to decide whether to heed that call on Monday.

“You might call it a memorial, but you’re honoring and glorifying people who fought to preserve slavery when our country wanted to go into a better and humane direction,” Rawls said. “The Confederacy should not be glorified.”

Mayor Tracy Upchurch agrees that it is time for the memorial to go, in the wake of demonstrations across the country to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“The world changed the day George Floyd died. We’re at a pivot point in our nation,” said Upchurch, a former state legislator who teaches law and history at Flagler College.

In the weeks after Floyd’s death, protesters by the hundreds have swarmed the historic city. The memorial has been a key focus of the outrage.

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WILMINGTON, N.C. — The mayor of a North Carolina city has imposed a curfew in the narrow area surrounding two Confederate monuments to try to thwart any vandalism or destruction.

The curfew in the city of Wilmington applies from 7:30 p.m. through 7 a.m. in the immediate area around two Confederate statues in the city.

The curfew began Saturday night and lasts five nights.

City officials were reacting to the toppling of two Confederate statues Friday night in Raleigh.

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BALTIMORE — A statue and memorial to George Washington in Baltimore has been vandalized with red paint.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the memorial in Druid Hill Park in northwest Baltimore also had the words “Destroy Racists” and the initials for the Black Lives Matter movement written on the base.

Police said Sunday morning that they had not received any complaints about the vandalism.

As statues and memorials to the Confederacy have been targeted across the South, protesters have also at times targeted Founding Fathers who were slaveholders, including Washington.

Baltimore removed several statues and memorials linked to the Confederacy back in 2017.

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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Three men, including employees of a sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office in California, have been arrested for investigation of the vandalism of a Black Lives Matter sign.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said late Saturday that a tarp painted with the letters “BLM” has been repeatedly damaged in Thousand Oaks. The owner of the sign posted an image of one of the incidents on social media, and the office says detectives recognized the suspect as a sheriff’s office employee.

The worker was issued a misdemeanor vandalism citation and placed on paid administrative leave. Another person investigated for vandalism to the sign worked for the county district attorney’s office.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Spectators cheered as work crews finished the job started by protesters Friday night and removed a Confederate statue from the top of a 75-foot monument.

News outlets report that work crews acting on the order of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper removed the statue Sunday morning and began taking down the obelisk on which it stood.

Sunday’s work follows the removal of two other Confederate statues on the state Capitol grounds in Raleigh on Saturday. Cooper ordered the statues removed after protesters toppled two other Confederate statues Friday night, stringing one up by the neck and hanging it from a light pole.

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EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Residents of a southwestern Illinois community want a statue of the state’s third governor removed from a public plaza, arguing that he owned slaves and used his power to protect the practice.

The (Edwardsville) Intelligencer reports nearly 500 people have joined a Facebook group supporting petitioning the city to tear down a Ninian Edwards statute and rename the plaza with his moniker.

Edwards died in 1833 and is also the namesake of the community but residents aren’t pushing to change that. Lifelong Edwardsville resident, Kirk Schlueter, says he thinks it is one way to boost the civil rights movement happening nationwide.

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More news about the death of George Floyd at https://apnews.com/GeorgeFloyd

By The Associated Press 22 June 2020, 12:00AM

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