SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A largely peaceful protest over George Floyd’s death made its way through downtown Salt Lake City after the mayor announced a new weeklong curfew.
Demonstrators gathered outside the city’s police headquarters on Monday and convinced several officers to kneel with them, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Police fired a few rubber bullets to disperse the crowd later that night.
“We believe that our message was heard loud and clear that we are done tolerating injustice,” said Daud Mumin, one of the speakers at the rally. “We’ve been crying for this for centuries. We’re done. It’s not about negotiation. It’s about taking action.”
Salt Lake City police said in a tweet that the window of an armored vehicle was shattered in the “mostly peaceful” protest. Sixteen people also were arrested, most accused of failure to disperse, police said. One person was arrested for carrying a loaded handgun.
The protest wasn’t nearly as volatile as those on Saturday, which led Mayor Erin Mendenhall to enact a citywide curfew and Gov. Gary Herbert to activate the Utah National Guard. Police said they arrested 46 people Saturday night, most of whom were cited for failing to disperse.
The protests were prompted by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.
Mendenhall has extended the curfew that runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. until next Monday. The curfew requires people to generally stay out of public spaces, with exceptions for law enforcement, medical personnel and journalists.
Herbert declared a state of emergency Monday, which closed the state Capitol until Saturday. The National Guard remained at the Capitol late Monday, and several protesters who refused to leave were arrested.
In other developments:
- Utah has sent about 200 National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C., at the request of President Donald Trump amid national protests over police brutality. The troops were already prepared for deployment and able to be quickly reassigned. They were flown in military KC-135R aircraft from Utah to Joint Base Andrews in Washington.
Another 200 soldiers have also been deployed to Salt Lake City after unrest during protests over the weekend, including the burning of an empty police car. The Guard has nearly 7,500 soldiers and airmen total.
- A Utah man was arrested Monday on his way to protests in Salt Lake City after police say he had made multiple threats to police officers in social media posts. Yuri Silva was stopped while leaving his house and police found four firearms in the car, including an AK-47-style rifle, West Valley City police said in a news release.
He was arrested on suspicion of making terrorist threats.
Silva denied that he planned to kill police but acknowledged the social media posts were meant to incite people, according to a probable cause statement. It’s unknown if Silva has an attorney. He had not yet been charged.
Silva, 27, had made several threats against police on social media and urged others to take up arms against police, the documents alleges.
A man driving the car Silva was in, Christian Hernandez, 27, was arrested on suspicion of drug and weapons charges. Hernandez hasn’t been charged and it’s unknown if he has an attorney.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.