An unidentified white man was caught on video footage destroying a George Floyd Square memorial in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in a now-viral clip.
The nearly 4-minute-long video, which was initially shared on Reddit, showed a truck driving up to the memorial site, which is reportedly one block away from where former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. In April 2021, a jury found Chauvin guilty second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter stemming from Floyd’s death in May 2020.
The man hopped out of the vehicle, leaving the headlights on, the driver’s side door open, and the left turn signal flashing. Dressed in a dark-colored T-shirt and light blue jeans, he then walked up to the barricades and immediately started knocking things down and pulling apart what appears to be a Black Lives Matter sign.
He continued to destroy the display before walking back to his black truck to retrieve an ax. When he returned, the man began striking a small pink-and-green hut that stood at the center of the memorial, breaking the surrounding windows. He later swings open a side door and enters the house. The man then began tossing items into the streets, including two propane tanks he was seen carrying out of the single-room structure. Witnesses nearby could be heard yelling at the man to leave, telling him several times to “get the f-ck out of here.” He did, but not before leaving his ax behind.
The incident was said to have taken place on Sunday, May 16, around 2 a.m. The official Instagram page for George Floyd Square reacted to the clip by describing the man as a “child.” “We ain’t sad, we ain’t hurt, we ain’t even scared,” they wrote, adding, “The only thing sad is the kind of hollow life and lack of direction that would motivate someone to throw a fit like this.”
Others reacted to the shocking video as well, including one user who wrote, “Well he a straight punk, came late at night, possibly full of cheap beer!!! And ran at the slightest noise. Liquid courage, oh he would never show face in daytime, they shouldnt of yelled, they should of crept up on him.” Another commented, “Typical angry color redacted man throwing a sh-t fit in the middle of the night where he assumes no one will witness his racist rage.”
“What bravery it takes to go in the middle of the night and throw a fit like a toddler,” expressed a third. “I wish being a racist a- -hole was an actionable offense.”
In an Instagram post uploaded on Monday, May 17, the organizers for community events at the intersection of East 38th and Chicago revealed that they had rebuilt the structure with a photo of the repaired hut and a caption that read, “We fine.”
TMZ reported that a police report has not yet been filed for the incident.
