Hundreds of protesters gather for peaceful rally Sunday in St. Paul

About 300 protesters gathered Sunday afternoon in front of the governor's residence on Summit Avenue before marching about an hour through the streets of St. Paul.

The protesters chanted, often to the beat of a drum, repeating Daunte Wright's name and the names of other victims of police-involved shootings in Minnesota and across the country.

The peaceful rally came exactly one week after Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. Wright's brother Damik attended Sunday's rally.

As the crowd marched a few blocks on Grand Avenue, dozens of shoppers and diners stepped out of businesses to watch and take videos of the demonstrators holding up "Black Lives Matter" signs and shouting in unison, "No justice, no peace! Prosecute the police!"

The group paused at a few points on Milton Street to hear from speakers and kneel for a moment of silence and prayer. By 4 p.m., the protesters had returned to the governor's residence on Summit Avenue and the crowd quickly dispersed.

Meanwhile Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn Center, a coalition of Black and white women met outside the police department to call for murder charges against Kimberly Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer who has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in Wright's death. The coalition also called for an end to Operation Safety Net, the joint law enforcement effort to maintain order during the protests.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott declared a citywide curfew starting at 11 p.m. Sunday and extending until 6 a.m. Monday. Protesters will be notified up to an hour before the curfew starts to give them time to safely leave the area.

The curfew won't apply to those going to work or religious services, law enforcement officials, the homeless, those needing medical care, or members of the media.

Also Sunday afternoon, an Asian solidarity rally was held at George Floyd Square in south Minneapolis featuring a long lineup of speakers and performers.

The rally was held in support of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) who have become targets of hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I hope you guys can find some joy today," said organizer Anthea Yur with the Kokoro Project, a local AAPI collective.

Marcia Howard, an activist who has helped turn the south Minneapolis intersection where Floyd died into a memorial, called it a "town square where within the barricades we stand against systemic oppression ... There is something incredibly transgressive and transformative about gathering together as a community in a way that the state or capitalism doesn't want us to do."