TUCSON, Ariz. — Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is expected to hold a press conference Saturday addressing local protests in response to the death of George Floyd.
The aftermath from a night of unrest has left some downtown Tucson buildings damaged and vandalized, including the police station.
Some of the buildings damaged include Chase Bank, City Park, Zen Rock Bar, Screamery Handcrafted Ice Cream, and several other establishments and some nearby residences.
Friday night, hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Tucson, which were ordered to disperse by Tucson Police Department, but most protesters ignored those orders.
"I am grateful for the professionalism and restraint that our police officers showed last night (Friday) in a very dangerous volatile situation. Our police chief, Chief Magnus was one of the first chiefs in the country to call out the disgusting, horrifying crime that we saw on Monday, I am proud of our police chief and I am proud of our police officers." Mayor Romero said.
There were hundreds of Tucson Police Department officers who were called out to calm and monitor the crowd, where they approached the gathering with a nonviolent technique. During the protest there were rocks, bottles and metal objects thrown at businesses and police officers -- those officers had minor injuries.
Tucson Police Chief Magun said "I have been so proud of the Tucson Police Department because our members, really across the board have joined me in recognizing the outrage, the horror of the death of George Floyd. I'm proud to work and live in an activist community and Tucson is an activists community in the best sense of the word. We are used to dealing with protests that overwhelmingly are peaceful and nonviolent where people make their voices heard and try to have an impact that causes they are very passionate about. We support that as a police department and try to do our best to facilitate that, and we believe that one of the most important roles we play are guardians of the constitution and the bill of rights, which is obviously includes the first amendment."
Other local demonstrations are planned to happen Monday.
