April 17 (UPI) -- The sixth night of demonstrations over the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright near Minneapolis was peaceful until protesters breached security fences, prompting arrests, officers said.
The protests stemmed from former officer Kim Potter's fatal shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black man Sunday in Brooklyn Center, Minn., after he was pulled over with an expired tag. Body-worn camera footage appeared to show Potter, a 26-year police veteran, shouting "Taser" several times before she fired a single bullet.
Potter resigned Tuesday and was arrested the next day on second-degree manslaughter charges.
Protests Friday reached a peak of about 1,000 people and looked liked a block party early on, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, but the tone changed at 9 p.m. after a speaker called for tearing down fences around the Brooklyn Center police headquarters.
Some of the protesters attempted to breach the security fences and few hurled objects at officers, prompting police -- who had previously waited out the protest behind the fences -- to fire flash-bang grenades and move in on the crowd to arrest people, according to the Star Tribune.
Police arrested about 100 people.
The City of Brooklyn Center issued a citywide curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said at a news conference around midnight Saturday some in the crowd began rattling the fence around 8:47 p.m., ABC News reported.
Harrington added officers tried not engaging with protesters, which worked well Thursday, but the "response was very different" Friday.
"This is a night that should have been about Daunte Wright; should have been folks there, recognizing his death and the tragedy that that is," Harrington said. "Tearing down a fence, coming armed to a protest, is not, in my mind, befitting a peaceful protest."
Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson reiterated Harrington's message of disappointment at the news conference.
Sunday's fatal officer shooting of Wright has also sparked protest beyond Minnesota across the country, ABC News reported.
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