RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Thousands in Minneapolis made their anger and their fury clear last night over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUN FIRING)
MARTIN: That's sound from video from CNN. There, you can hear police firing tear gas at protesters. It was the second night of protests. And these demonstrations turned deadly when one man was shot to death. Protesters there are seeking justice after video circulated of a white police officer with his knee on George Floyd's neck. Floyd gasps for air, and then he dies. Holly Bailey is with The Washington Post. And she is on the ground there in Minneapolis. Holly, thanks for being with us.
HOLLY BAILEY: Good morning.
MARTIN: You were out there on the streets last night. Protests had been, actually, going on all day. Can you describe what you saw?
BAILEY: Well, for most of the day, the protest had been peaceful. There've been several hundred people outside the 3rd Precinct - the 3rd Police Precinct in south Minneapolis, a little bit south of downtown. And then suddenly, the protests grew larger. Several thousand people showed up. Police were in riot gear. Some were positioned on top of the police building firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd to control it. And meanwhile, the neighborhood around the police station basically dissolved into chaos.
There's several Target store - a Target store and other retail stores that - where windows were broken out and looting began. By 10 o'clock last night, there were businesses on fire. And the protest had extended sort of out of that neighborhood. And I think there's a lot of people here fearing that this is just going to get worse.
MARTIN: I understand some of the protesters actually went to the home of one of the officers involved, is that right?
BAILEY: Yeah, Derek Chauvin, who is the officer pictured in the video with his knee on George Floyd's neck. There are - protesters went to his home in a suburb of Minneapolis, several hundred people. They poured red paint on his driveway. Someone wrote killer on the garage door. And there were also protests outside the home of the county prosecutor here as they - people demand for this officer to be arrested.
MARTIN: What more can you tell us about the four officers who were fired?
BAILEY: What we know is that, you know, Derek Chauvin and another officer, at least, had a history of being involved in altercations. Chauvin had been involved in at least two police-involved shootings. And, you know, there's a lot more that, you know, people are looking into at this point. We only received the names of the latter two officers yesterday. And so there's a lot more. But they appear to be - they don't have as long of a time on the force as Chauvin did. But I expect we're going to be hearing more about that in coming days.
MARTIN: So the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has been calling out for these officers to be arrested and charged, at least the primary officer involved. What - is that going to happen? I mean, do we have any indication at this point if charges are coming?
BAILEY: Well, yesterday, state officials, who are also having - running their own separate investigation, sort of said that they wanted to see action - whatever action happened very quickly. One of the state officials compared it to the Eric Garner case, saying, you know, this is not - they're going to act more swiftly than New York did on this. But, you know, a lot still has to happen in terms of the investigation. There still hasn't been a medical examiner investigation of George Floyd's body that needs to happen. And so just - there's a lot more that needs to happen before anybody is arrested.
MARTIN: All right. Holly Bailey with The Washington Post reporting from Minneapolis. Thanks very much.
BAILEY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.