MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Latest on a jury convicting a Minnesota man who shot and wounded five black protesters (all times local):
6:15 p.m.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman is vowing to seek “the stiffest possible sentence” for a Minnesota man convicted of shooting and wounding five protesters outside a Minneapolis police station.
Freeman said his office is pleased that the jury on Wednesday found 24-year-old Allen Scarsella guilty of assault and riot charges.
Freeman says prosecutors charged Scarsella with “the most serious possible charge that the evidence allowed,” and argued successfully for high bail to keep Scarsella off the street.
Scarsella, who is white, argued he acted in self-defense after he was confronted by demonstrators protesting the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark by Minneapolis police in 2015. Five black men suffered injuries ranged from leg, arm and foot to stomach and back wounds.
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5:30 p.m.
One of the victims is praising a Minnesota jury for convicting a man who shot and wounded five black men protesting the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark by Minneapolis police.
Twenty-six-year-old Cameron Clark is a cousin of Clark’s and says he was shot in his right leg, with the bullet missing his artery by a half-inch.
Cameron Clark was in the courtroom Wednesday when a Hennepin County jury convicted 24-year-old Allen Scarsella of assault and riot charges. Clark says he “had the butterflies” because he was afraid jurors would acquit Scarsella because he claimed self-defense.
Clark says Scarsella “went down there to provoke” at the November 2015 demonstration outside a Minneapolis police station.
Defense attorneys left without comment. Sentencing is set for March 10.
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4:50 p.m.
A jury has convicted a Minnesota man who shot and wounded five black men demonstrating against the fatal shooting of a black man by Minneapolis police officers.
Twenty-four-year-old Allen Scarsella of Bloomington was found guilty of assault and riot charges Wednesday. Scarsella was accused of shooting and injuring the men at a Black Lives Matter protest after the death of Jamar Clark in 2015.
Attorneys for Scarsella and the three men he was with say their clients went to the protest outside a north Minneapolis police station to livestream video on Nov. 23, 2015.
Scarsella testified that he opened fire to protect himself after he says he was punched and told to leave by protesters.
The other three men have pleaded not guilty and await trial.
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