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Crews clean debris in the wake of Saturday night's protests. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Cleaning up after protests on Broad Street Sunday morning. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Numerous fires were set by protesters on Saturday night. (Photo by Jay Paul)
A nightly curfew will begin in Richmond on Sunday after two nights of protests across the city in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Mayor Levar Stoney announced.
The curfew, approved by Gov. Ralph Northam, will be in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and applies to all public spaces within the city limits. Law enforcement and medical workers are exempted from the order, Stoney said, and the public will only be allowed outside to travel to and from work and to seek medical attention or assistance from first responders.
“It will be enforced,” he said, and added that Northam also has alerted the Virginia National Guard to respond in Richmond, if needed. In a statement Sunday morning, Northam acknowledged calls for justice and affirmed “deep concerns from the black community.”
“I hear you. I know your pain is real. We have all seen too many people harassed, abused, and killed by law enforcement officers, in too many places, for too long — just for being black,” he wrote. “I also know that others are exploiting this pain and are now causing violence.”
The announcement follows two nights of peaceful and violent protests in Richmond that were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Actions in Richmond reflected other large-scale protests that have occurred in cities across America in the days since Floyd's death on May 25.
Stoney and Richmond Police Chief William Smith decried Floyd’s death, but also condemned the actions of “outside actors” who they say turned peaceful demonstrations into violent protests and looting. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that protestors vandalized and looted several businesses along West Broad Street downtown and set fire to buildings, a GRTC Pulse bus and the Daughters of the Confederacy building. Confederate statues along Monument Avenue also were spray-painted during Saturday night’s protests.
“At this point, these bad actors are hijacking the cause,” Stoney said. “As soon as you loot a store or set a public bus on fire, you’ve stopped protesting. You’re not demonstrating, you’ve made it about you when it should be about us.”
Smith and Richmond Fire Chief Melvin Carter described an incident on Saturday night where protestors “intentionally” set fire to a multifamily building on the 300 block of West Broad Street and blocked first responders from the scene. A child was among those rescued from the fire after police cleared a path for fire crews to extinguish the blaze, Smith said.
Four police officers and “a few” firefighters were injured during the protests, Stoney said, while one man suffered a life-threatening wound after being shot by a protestor while in his car. More injuries were suffered by protestors across both nights, Smith said, adding that most were caused by “protestor-on-protestor violence.”
Police plan to investigate and file charges against members of out-of-state groups who Smith claims were responsible for instigating violence during the protests.
“We have people from across the country who have traveled from many states to be here,” he said. “We know that this is an organized effort, we’re committed to try and identify those that are behind it and we’re doing our level best to arrest those perpetrating the violence on our community.”
