Good morning and welcome to the weekend. Here is your Saturday update. A slightly cooler, but sunny, start to the weekend. Twin Cities highs in the upper 60s with nighttime lows in the upper 40s. Statewide, highs in the 60s with evening lows from the 40s in the northeast to upper 40s in the southwest. More on Updraft | Forecast Derek Chauvin has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in George Floyd's killing. Chauvin, who was fired from his job as a Minneapolis police officer along with the three others present during Floyd’s killing, was arrested Friday morning. It’s the same charges leveled against former cop Mohamed Noor, who was convicted in the killing of Justine Ruszczyk. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Chauvin’s prosecution was the fastest his office has ever charged an officer. For Floyd's family, the charges are a "welcome but overdue step on the road to justice." That's according to their attorney, Ben Crump, who said the family expected the fired officer to face a first-degree murder charge. “We want a first-degree murder charge. And we want to see the other officers arrested,” he said.
The Twin Cities began nighttime curfews last evening as leaders aim to curb violent protests. In stunning terms typically heard in war zones, not the Twin Cities, Gov. Tim Walz vowed to hold ground, restore order and take back the streets of Minneapolis from what his public safety chief described as an “armed … entrenched group of rioters.”
During a 1:30 a.m. briefing Saturday, Walz conceded his administration had underestimated the size of the crowds they expected to face in Friday’s protests — as well as their level of aggression and tactics. Police were fired on.
Walz said he would call up another 1,000 Minnesota National Guard soldiers in response, putting more than 1,500 Guard members on the streets — the largest civilian deployment in Minnesota history. Right now, he said, authorities don’t have the bodies to enforce the curfew. “We cannot arrest people when we’re trying to hold ground,” he said. “There’s simply more of them than us.”
Minnesota’s COVID-19 death toll continued its awful climb Friday, rising to 996, while the number of Minnesotans currently in intensive care jumped to 259, near its high from earlier in the week. Nearly 600 Minnesotans remain hospitalized. The newest numbers come as health officials expect a spike in cases stemming from the massive protests over the death of George Floyd. Contact tracers are key to the fight against COVID-19. Take a look at what they do. MPR News reporter Dan Gunderson interviewed Sarah Swartz, a contact tracer in North Dakota: “The calls come at all hours of the day. Swartz works with a case manager, who assigns a group of contact tracers to individual cases. They become a sort of coronavirus patient guide, helping people through the process of navigating their positive test result and being placed in quarantine.” Read more here.
Here are the latest coronavirus statistics: 23,531 confirmed cases via 233,873 tests 996 deaths 2,936 cases requiring hospitalization 592 people remain hospitalized; 259 in intensive care 16,655 patients no longer needing isolation
— Cody Nelson, MPR News | @codyleenelson | 