Hundreds peacefully march in Charlotte. Earlier violence sparks call for National Guard

After two days of sometimes destructive demonstrations with dozens of arrests, Charlotte saw a day of peaceful protests Sunday over the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd. Meanwhile, Gov. Roy Cooper said the National Guard would be available to Raleigh and Charlotte at the request of both cities.

The Sunday marches from two uptown Charlotte parks followed a night of unrest in Charlotte and Raleigh, and Cooper said the cities had requested help from the National Guard.

Cooper said 450 guard members were activated, but did not specify how many were going to Charlotte.

“Some of these guardsmen are trained in how to protect public structures and that is how they will be used,” Cooper said.

The city of Charlotte, however, tweeted late Sunday that the Guard was not being deployed Sunday night.

“There are reports that the National Guard is deploying to Charlotte in response to demonstrations. That is not true. The National Guard has been in #CLT assisting with COVID-19 response. There are no plans at this time to deploy the National Guard in response to demonstrations,” @cltgov tweeted.

Earlier Sunday, demonstrators gathered in both First Ward Park, east of Tryon Street, and a few blocks away at Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte. The First Ward event was sponsored by “It Ends Now,” which bills itself as a Christian-based advocacy group to fight racial injustice.

In deference to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of them wore masks.

Meanwhile, several hundred others circled Bearden Park off Church Street, in a protest organized by T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E., rapper Tupac Shakur’s acronym about the widespread damage caused by hatred.

Both groups eventually took over some of the city’s major streets, with the demonstrations stretching five blocks or more as police blocked certain intersections to control traffic.

Mahagony Rose, 20, a Charlotte native and rising junior at the University of Charleston in West Virginia, helped organized the Bearden Park demonstration. Rose said it was meant to give black and brown people an outlet to safely “express their pain and suffering.”

“Either you stay silent or you do something about it,” Rose said.

On the other side of uptown, Torian Sitton, 29, said he attended the First Ward protest at the urging of his pastor and to offer a thought.

“... To get people to imagine, just to imagine, a world without racism,” Sitton said.

Organizers of the First Ward Park event coordinated with CMPD, and some marchers even thanked the officers that were on the route on the protest. “This was not a reaction to other protests,” said one of the organizers, Kiana Osborne, a nonprofit worker.

‘Channel our anger’

Later in the day, Cooper added his voice to the calls for change.

He described Floyd’s killing as the latest in “generations of trauma that black people and other communities of color continue to suffer, trauma that is too often gone unrecognized in our country.”

The state’s Democratic chief executive also called for an end to the violence that struck Charlotte and Raleigh, saying it “undermines peaceful pleas for justice.”

“We have to constructively channel our anger, frustration and sadness to force accountability and action,” Cooper said. “... We have to have these hard conversations and then move beyond them to do the work of fighting racism and building safe, thriving communities for everyone.”

Protests around the US

Both Charlotte events were in protest of the killing of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on Monday. Floyd died in custody after police say he tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a deli. Floyd was African American. The police involved are white.

Video taken by witnesses show a police offer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd can be heard telling police, “I can’t breathe.”

The officer involved has been charged with third-degree murder. Three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest have been fired.

Floyd’s death set off waves of angry demonstrations across the country, including in Charlotte, Raleigh, Fayetteville and Greensboro. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County announced “a state of emergency” Saturday night.

Under the light of day, the Sunday protests in Charlotte were markedly calmer.

Organizers of the Bearden Park event read the names of victims of what they described as police brutality throughout the country. They carried signs, saying “I can’t breathe,” “Racism is violence” and “De-fund CMPD.”

At 2:30, they began walking down Church Street chanting, “No justice, no peace.”

At around the same time, the marchers who gathered in First Ward stretched four blocks down Tryon Street, chanting “Black lives matter” in front of the Bank of America tower at The Square.

They also recited the Lord’s Prayer.

Police presence

Both of Sunday’s peaceful demonstrations stood in sharp contrast to how the day broke.

Police say between 50 to 75 rioters threw explosives and fired weapons and battled officers late Saturday into the early morning hours of Sunday. For a time, demonstrators also blocked traffic on Interstate 277 in uptown, police said Saturday night.

CMPD said at least 30 people were arrested, including six who brought firearms to the demonstrations.

Tensions spiked after demonstrators arrived at CMPD headquarters. Police arrested the first of several protesters for possessing a concealed firearm, the department tweeted around 9:30 p.m. Police identified her Sunday as Tylessia McKinney.

While officers were arresting McKinney, a group of protesters “became aggressive and threatened the safety of officers and others in the area,” CMPD said. The department’s riot squad was called in.

In all, police say they seized at least six armed weapons during the night.

Businesses damaged

According to police, some protesters threw explosives into businesses “with the intention to set fires, and multiple fires required extinguishing.” Others fired weapons into business, police said Sunday.

Several well-known uptown businesses, including Discovery Place and the King’s Kitchen restaurant “incurred extensive damage,” according to a police statement Sunday.

Discovery Place released a statement Sunday that its science building on Tryon Street had damaged windows.

“Our windows can be repaired but a much longer process lies ahead to change the systemic issues that are fueling these events,” the nonprofit museum said. “We remain committed to helping Charlotte become a better community for everyone.”

Other businesses that were damaged included Capital Grille, 204 North Kitchen & Cocktails, 5Church restaurant, Sophia’s Lounge and Coco and the Director coffee lounge.

‘#georgefloyd’

The widespread weekend violence is the city’s worst since portions of west Charlotte and uptown erupted over CMPD’s fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in September 2016.

Nearly four years ago, the Epicentre entertainment venue was a front line for some of the worst of the looting and clashes between demonstrators and police.

Sunday, the uptown venue between Tryon, Trade and College had a message on its electronic sign: #georgefloyd, it read. One of the marches stopped there for five minutes of call and response.

“What is his name?” half the group called out.

“George Floyd,” the others responded.

Staff writers Melissa Oyler and Adam Bell contributed

This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 1:25 PM.