Reporters Loudly Object When Minnesota Police Chief Called Street Chaos A ‘Riot’

When a Minnesota police chief described his officers being injured by bricks, rocks, and frozen soda cans on Monday, and called the event a “riot,” reporters loudly objected to his use of the term.

A reporter asks, “What was your decision to issue a dispersal order, while they were peacefully protesting in front of the police station, what led you to issue a dispersal order, and then on the back end of that 10-minute dispersal order, then issue out C02 canisters and gas, for the crowd?”

Brooklyn, Minnesota, Police Chief Tim Gannon replied, “Just so everybody is clear, I was front and center at the protest, at the riot.”

Reporters then objected to his description of the event as a riot.

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Reporters Object To Police Chief Using The Word ‘Riot’

One reporter says, “There was no riot.”

You can then hear another reporter say, “Don’t do that!”

Then other reporters appeared to object to the officer using the word “riot.”

Still, Chief Gannon insisted that “the officers that were putting themselves in harm’s way were being pelted with frozen cans of pop, they were being pelted with concrete blocks.”

‘Holy [expletive]. I Shot Him’

Gannon continued, “Yes, we had our helmets on. We had other protection gear. But an officer was injured, hit in the head with a brick … he was transported to the hospital. So, we had to make decisions, we had to disperse the crowd because we can’t allow our officers to be harmed.”

While Gannon was describing the events in front of the police station, other news outlets have described the events in the city as rioting, unrest, “confrontations with police,” and looting.

Whatever the reaction events are called, they came in the wake of what Gannon described as the possibly “accidental shooting” of Duante Wright.

The video released by the police department showed an officer deploying her pistol while exclaiming “Taser, Taser, Taser.”

But then she fires her pistol and van be heard saying, “Holy [expletive]. I shot him.”

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Gannon said at the press conference, “It is my belief that the officer had the intention to employ their taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet.”

Police Chief Tim Gannon comments on the shooting of Daunte Wright, calling it an “accidental discharge” pic.twitter.com/JFzMlJapar

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 12, 2021