Furious over the fatal shooting of a Black man by a police officer during a traffic stop, demonstrators gathered to protest outside the police department

Police fired tear gas and stun guns to disperse the Monday night demonstrators defying a curfew while protesters threw “bottles, fireworks, bricks and other projectiles at public safety officials,” according to a tweet from Operation Safety Net. The operation is a joint effort of local agencies to ensure public safety during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer facing charges in the death of George Floyd, being held some 10 miles away.

“Go home or you will be arrested. Curfew violation is a misdemeanor,” OSN tweeted.

In addition to dispersing the demonstrators, authorities responded to multiple reports of break-ins and looting.

About 40 arrests were made, Col. Matt Langer of the Minnesota State Patrol said during news conference early Tuesday.

The traffic stop that ended in Wright’s death

Wright was with his girlfriend Sunday afternoon, driving to his older brother’s house, when police pulled him over in Brooklyn Center over an expired tag, police said. Officers learned he had an outstanding warrant and attempted to handcuff him while he was standing outside his car.

Wright’s older brother, Damik Bryant, told CNN he texted Wright moments before the shooting, asking what was taking him so long. Wright sent another text saying he was pulled over and asked for insurance information, Bryant said. Bryant told him to call their mother.

Wright gave officers his name before calling his mother, Bryant said.

“They asked him to step out the car, and you know his first instinct was, ‘What did I do, what’s wrong?’ And they were like, ‘Well, put the phone down, get out the car now, we’ll talk to you about it when you get out,'” Bryant said.

“So, I heard the phone get either put on the dashboard or dropped, and I heard scuffling, and I heard the police officers say, ‘Daunte don’t run.’ And then the other officer said, ‘Put the phone down'” before it sounded like the phone was hung up, she said.

In the body-worn camera footage released Monday, an officer tells Wright “don’t” as Wright twists away from an officer to get back into the car. Brooklyn Center police Chief Tim Gannon said it appeared from the video that Wright was trying to leave.

The officer whose camera footage was released is heard warning the man she’s going to use her Taser on him, before repeatedly shouting, “Taser! Taser! Taser!”

Then, the officer is heard screaming, “Holy sh*t! I just shot him.”

Police release body camera footage

Gannon said he released the video for the sake of transparency and that the BCA doesn’t condone the release of video in ongoing investigations.

“I felt the community needed to know what happened. They needed to see it. I needed to be transparent. And I want to be forthright,” Gannon said. 

Gannon said the portion of body-worn camera footage released Monday led him to believe the shooting was accidental and that the officer’s actions before the shooting were consistent with the department’s training on Tasers.

“As I watched the video and listened to the officer’s commands, it is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” Gannon said. “This appears to me, from what I’ve viewed and the officer’s reaction and distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in the tragic death of Mr. Wright.”

Gannon said he asked BCA to investigate and present its findings, “independent of me,” to authorities and attorneys to review the case.

The district attorney for Hennepin County said it sent the case to a different county to avoid an “appearance of a conflict of interest.”

‘How do we put life back together after this?’

An attorney for Wright’s family, Ben Crump, called the shooting “entirely preventable” and “inhumane.”

“As Minneapolis and the rest of the country continue to deal with the tragic killing of George Floyd, now we must also mourn the loss of this young man and father,” he said.

For his family, it is difficult to see a way forward without Wright, his aunt Naisha Wright told CNN’s Don Lemon.

Naisha Wright was driving to be with her brother and sister-in-law, Daunte’s parents, Monday night. Starting in Alabama, she spent hours driving to pick up her mother in Tennessee so they could both go to Minneapolis. It will take until 11 a.m. Tuesday to get there, but Naisha Wright said being with her family is all she can think about.

Naisha Wright described her nephew as a young man who loved his family and was loved by them, Wright said. His parents have been together over two decades, and raised their son in a strong, loving home, she said.

“How do we put life back together after this?” she asked. “My mother shouldn’t have to be burying her grandchild. My brother and my sister shouldn’t be burying their son.”