A hail of gunfire erupted on Tuesday at George Floyd Square, a police-free zone that encompasses the area in Minneapolis where the 47-year-old black man died last May.
The alarming moment was captured on an ABC News livestream in which reporter Alex Presha can be heard scrambling to find cover as at least 14 shots were fired.
“Down, down, down,” a voice is heard saying.
“Get behind the engine block. Behind the engine block,” it continued.
VIDEO SHOWS MAN TRASHING GEORGE FLOYD ‘AUTONOMOUS’ ZONE
Gunfire during the @ABC crew’s liveshot from George Floyd Square. Hope you are safe @Alex_Presha. This is unbelievably heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/1QfsNqIv4A
— Nikki Muehlhausen (@NikkiKARE11) May 25, 2021
Other accounts recorded up to 30 shots as a black SUV was seen prowling through the area.
Quick rough footage of the moment we heard shots fired at George Floyd Square. We counted 30 upon looking back at the footage. pic.twitter.com/oxGkLQru9Q
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) May 25, 2021
The Minneapolis Police Department responded at around 10 a.m. and reported that a suspect vehicle sped away, a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. One individual with a gunshot wound checked into a hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
“The team got to safety,” Presha said when he returned to his segment following the shots. “But you heard during that second question or third question that you were asking me what sounded like initially maybe a cluster of fireworks, but, you know, you hear more and more of those pops, and you recognize it resembled gunfire. So our security team evacuated us. We ducked behind a row of cars here in this church parking lot.”
Hours prior to the shooting, a video journalist for the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune said he was robbed of his camera drone by “security” personnel from within the zone.
“Had my drone taken by three dudes working ‘security’ about a block from 38th and Chicago this morning,” Mark Vancleave wrote in a tweet.
“Threatened and told never to come back to George Floyd Square.”
The two incidents took place on the anniversary of Floyd’s death after he was killed outside a Cup Foods store on May 25, 2020, by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in April.
George Floyd Square has persisted for nearly a year, with rampant crime and lack of law enforcement assistance becoming a norm, as the city has not ordered authorities to dismantle the zone.
Business owners in the area banded together earlier in the year to demand city bailouts after officials allowed the zone to persist since June. Minneapolis leaders agreed in early April, setting aside multiple interest-free $50,000 loans for those afflicted, totaling $1 million.
“Secondly, we’re continuing to make substantial progress over at 38th and Chicago,” Mayor Jacob Frey said during the trial of Chauvin. “Right now, the city is set to move forward with a series of $50,000 interest-free, forgivable loans to businesses that have been substantially impacted over these last seven, eight, and nine months.”
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Frey, in the past, has indicated support for a “phased reopening” of the area citing that residents are not yet eager to end the zone.
The Washington Examiner contacted ABC News for comment.
