OMAHA, Neb. — Someone was shot and killed near a downtown Omaha demonstration over the death of George Floyd in which protesters clashed with police in riot gear, authorities said.
The shooting occurred at around 11 p.m. Saturday in the city’s Old Market area and within a couple of blocks of where protesters had gathered. Police said they arrested someone within the hour in connection with the shooting. Officials didn’t say whether the shooting was tied to the protest, but police said they would disclose further details about the shooting and the protest during a news conference later Sunday.
The protest in downtown Omaha followed one hours earlier in a commercial district a few miles away that, like many of the Floyd protests around the country Saturday, started peacefully but devolved into clashes between protesters and police. Some protesters threw water bottles, rocks and eggs at police officers in riot gear, who used tear gas and pepper balls to disperse the crowd.
The second protest — the one in downtown Omaha — started around 10 p.m. Saturday and continued past midnight after police broke up the earlier protest.
In Lincoln, police and protesters also clashed after a mostly peaceful event turned violent around 11 p.m. Saturday. Officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the crowd after protesters broke several windows in office buildings near the County-City Building downtown.
Several hours after the Lincoln protests broke up, firefighters were called to a blaze at an insurance company building a couple of blocks from where the protest had ended.
Around the start of the protests earlier Saturday, Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister spoke to the group that first gathered at the state Capitol and condemned the actions of police in Minneapolis that led to Floyd’s death Monday.
Floyd, who was black and was handcuffed, died after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, used his knee to pin down Floyd’s neck for several minutes while Floyd pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving. Chauvin and the other three officers who took part in the arrest of Floyd, who was suspected of passing a counterfeit bill, were fired Tuesday. Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges, but the other three officers haven’t been charged.
