Is This a Burnt-Out Car From Police-Brutality Protests in Minneapolis?
More than 1,500 buildings across the Twin Cities were vandalized, looted, or had doors or windows smashed in the month following George Floyd's death while in police custody.
- Published
Claim
A photograph shows a burnt-out car amidst the wreckage of protests in Minneapolis following the May 2020 death of George Floyd.
Rating
Origin
Rumors are surging in the wake of George Floyd’s death and resulting protests against police violence and racial injustice in the United States. Stay informed. Read our special coverage, contribute to support our mission, and submit any tips or claims you see here.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, following an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. That event was followed by several nights of protests in the city, during which multiple buildings were set afire:
Post offices, gas stations, pawnshops and a large apartment building under construction were set ablaze during the middle of confrontations between protesters and police that week. Dozens of households had to be evacuated.
On one night, an entire apartment building in south Minneapolis was evacuated as an O’Reilly Auto Parts and Family Dollar were engulfed in flames. Firefighters did not arrive to extinguish the fire until about two hours after neighbors called 911.
Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel says he was told the scene around the fire at a police precinct “was untenable.”
“I’m going to assess that situation around the third precinct building. And if we can go in and attempt to make a fire attack in that structure, we will.” pic.twitter.com/VEVlW3I3sd
— Don Lemon Tonight (@DonLemonTonight) May 29, 2020
Some scenes from the aftermath of that unrest in Minneapolis continued to draw questions about their authenticity on social media for weeks after the fact, such as the following photograph of a burnt-out car parked on a street amidst a bunch of rubble and wreckage:
This picture did originate in Minneapolis and not Kuwait (or elsewhere), as demonstrated by the fact that multiple photographs of the same car taken from different angles exist and were posted to social media at the time, including ones published by Twin Cities Business (TCB), Getty Images, and the Associated Press:
(David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)
