The scene outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department during the fourth night of unrest following the police killing of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center. (David Joles, Star Tribune file/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A Star Tribune photojournalist is suing Minnesota public safety leaders after a state trooper allegedly targeted and shot him in the hand with less-lethal ammunition during the protests that followed Daunte Wright's police killing in Brooklyn Center last year.

Mark Vancleave filed the federal civil suit on Thursday, seeking compensatory and punitive damages and also a judicial order requiring "adequate training and discipline" of Minnesota State Patrol troopers.

Vancleave suffered multiple fractures in his right hand and required surgery after being shot while covering protest activity on April 12, 2021, despite being "clearly identifiable as a member of the press," according to the lawsuit.

Vancleave's lawsuit alleges a "a custom and practice of unconstitutional use of force against journalists" by the State Patrol — citing both the Wright protests and the agency's response to the uprising over George Floyd's death a year earlier. The lawsuit points to multiple examples of arrests of journalists or journalists being injured by less-lethal ammunition.

Reached Thursday, Vancleave said the lawsuit speaks for itself. Howie Padilla, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said the department is not commenting on pending litigation. Vancleave filed the suit against Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, State Patrol Col. Matthew Langer, Maj. Joseph Dwyer and four unidentified state troopers.

Kevin Riach, Vancleave's attorney, wrote in the complaint filed Thursday that the unidentified trooper's 40mm round hit Vancleave "directly in the hand that was holding his professional camera." Riach added that the impact knocked Vancleave's camera out of his hand, his hand "immediately went numb, and he went into shock."

"Given the failure to take corrective action in the wake of the George Floyd protests, it is unsurprising that the unconstitutional conduct by the Minnesota State Patrol repeated itself during the Daunte Wright protests," Riach wrote. "These attacks confirm that whatever training was provided in the wake of the George Floyd protests was wholly inadequate, and the lack of any discipline or other corrective action toward troopers who engaged in unconstitutional conduct during the George Floyd protests signaled to troopers that the Minnesota State Patrol and Department of Public Safety did not object to or take issue with the unconstitutional conduct in which troopers engaged during the George Floyd protests."

The complaint outlines allegations of constitutional violations of freedom of speech and the press, retaliation, unreasonable force, and various counts of supervisory liability.