Additional reporting by Lauren Fox.
Authorities said late Tuesday that three men were in custody after a group of white supremacists allegedly opened fire on Black Lives Matter protesters Monday night in Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Police Department said in a news release that two white men, aged 26 and 21, voluntarily turned themselves in around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and were being interviewed by investigators.
Previously, police said they arrested a 23-year-old white man in nearby Bloomington, Minnesota and took a 32-year-old Hispanic man into custody in Minneapolis. Both arrests were made in connection with the shooting, which left five demonstrators injured. Police later tweeted that the Hispanic man was not present Monday night at the scene of the shooting and had been released from custody.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, citing anonymous sources, identified those detained as Allen Lawrence “Lance” Scarsella III, 23; Nathan Gustavsson, 21; and Daniel Macey, 26. A spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department, John Elder, would not confirm those names to TPM on Wednesday. Police previously said the suspects would be identified upon charging.
The newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that authorities were weighing whether to treat the shooting as a hate crime, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.
This post has been updated.
I hope they enjoy their Thanksgivings and Christmases in jail and then in prison for the next 25 years; where they deserve to be, alongside so many black lives, (and some of those black lives should not be there.)
“The newspaper reported earlier Tuesday that authorities were weighing whether to treat the shooting as a hate crime, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.”
Sounds pretty textbook to me.
Obviously it should’ve treated a a hate crime… What other reason is there?
Unless all of the protest is in these guys front yard or something that drove them crazy, this is a hate crime. The protest is largely about race.
I could see weighing whether to add to the charges, as proving it is a different story, but it clearly should be treated a a hate crime, and investigations should be seeking evidence (besides obvious common sense) to make the charge stick.
terrorists:
Well, it’s confusing when they’re white, have been hanging around casing the protest group, and came to the scene together each armed, guns loaded for fire, and them wearing protective vests and masks.
Like, if they REALLY went there jointly with menace on their minds, you’d think they’d make some effort to avoid it been so OBVIOUS, right? It’s SO obvious, so right-out-of-the-Code textbook, you just have to be suspicious they might be all just jointly too stupid to tie their own shoes or insane or something.
'You’re charged with assault with a deadly weapon and intent to issue menaces. Anything to say? - Yeah, we didn’t actually go there, like, AGREEING or INTENDING to shoot anyone, just to intimidate them, you know? Give a scare, make 'em pee their pants, watch ‘em maybe scatter like scared rats. But “menace”? No way. It’s all their faults they got shot, cuz when they didn’t get intimidated, we got scared they weren’t scare enough, capeesh? So we had to kind of, you know, make the point’