A federal police officer guarding the federal building in Oakland was shot dead by an unknown assailant. Another security guard was wounded.
The officers worked for the Department of Homeland Security and were based at the Oakland Downtown Federal Building.
Earlier, 10,000 people took to the streets in protest of George Floyd’s killing by a police officer. It began peacefully enough, but by the end of the night 18 people had been arrested and six police officers were injured. The rioters looted several stores including a Target Store and Walgreens.
“A vehicle approached the building,” the statement read. “An individual inside the vehicle began firing shots at contracted security officers for the Federal Protection Service of the Department of Homeland Security. One officer was killed and another injured.”
The Oakland police tweeted Friday night that they did not believe the shooting was related to the violence that would later break out on the nearby streets during a demonstration sparked by the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In an email to KPIX 5 early Saturday, Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson could not confirmed the tweet – “Still under investigation, unknown if related.”
The murder of the federal security officer occurred just a couple of blocks away from the rioting. But it’s still “unknown if related.”
Meanwhile, there wasn’t much question about what motivated a driver in an SUV to run over at least two people in nearby San Jose.
A frightening scene unfolded Friday night during a heated San Jose protest over an unarmed black man’s death in Minneapolis Police custody as the driver of an SUV drove into a crowd and appeared to injure two people.
The incident was caught on video, and the driver appeared to deliberately back over one victim before speeding off.
It happened around 9 p.m. near the intersection of Sixth Street and Santa Clara, after a day full of demonstrations featuring multiple confrontations between protesters and police in riot gear. At least two people were injured, according to reports. Their condition is still unknown, as was the identity of the driver.
WARNING: Disturbing images.
We were covering the protest in San Jose when this SUV sped up toward crowd then reversed, hitting at least two people.
Video courtesy: Julian Romero pic.twitter.com/0MeoapW0VD
— Maria Medina (@MariaKPIX) May 30, 2020
Is it an accident that this unrest is happening in radical left Democratic cities where protesters are encouraged by official inaction? The class warfare rhetoric is also coming back to haunt Democrats as the rioters also targeted a Chase bank and a Mercedes Benz dealership.
The riots are breaking out all over the country. Only decisive, determined action by authorities will stop it. But so far, Democratic mayors and governors appear to be taking the attitude that “we deserve this” and the rioters have a First Amendment right to be as violent as they wish. God forbid one “legitimate” protester is arrested.
The next 48 hours will tell us if our cities will be left to the tender mercy of thugs and anti-social criminals.
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