Black Lives Matter Activists Are Shot While Trump Is Busy Sharing a Neo-Nazi Graphic on Twitter

NAACP Minneapolis President Nekima Levy-Pounds speaks during a vigil in front of the Minneapolis Police Department’s fourth precinct in Minneapolis. (AP Photo / Andy Clayton-King)

Last night around 10:45 in Minneapolis, a group of suspected white supremacists opened fire on a crowd of Black Lives Matter activists, injuring five people. All five were taken to the hospital and one underwent surgery early this morning. The shooters targeted a Black Lives Matter encampment near the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th Precinct, where protesters have remained for over a week to demand consequences for the police killing of unarmed 24-year-old Jamar Clark. Ad Policy

Miski Noor, a Black Lives Matter organizer, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “A group of white supremacists showed up at the protest, as they have done most nights.” Noor told the Star Tribune that when Black Lives Matter activists tried to get the group to leave, “they opened fire on about six protesters.”

The attackers, some of whom were allegedly wearing masks and bullet-proof vests, fled from the encampment that was a block away from the police precinct. Many protesters at the encampment claim police officers simply stood around. One Black Lives Matter activist, Toor, 21, came to the encampment after work, having heard about the shooting. “People heard the police saying, ‘this is what you wanted, this is what you asked for.’” According to one eyewitness, it took the police fifteen to twenty minutes to respond, evoking the Ferguson police’s decision to let the body of Michael Brown lay outside for hours.

Cops started macing concerned bystanders and being violent was even more triggering #4thPrecinctShutDown

— h a f s a (@QUESADILLABABY) November 24, 2015

The police did not respond to these specific accusations and issued a statement claiming officers immediately responded to the shooting.

As of now, little is known about the identity of the attackers. Over the last week, protesters in Minneapolis have been facing regular threats from white supremacists. On Friday night, two masked men decked in camouflage, came to the protests and made Black Lives Matter activists feel threatened.