Protest on Strip planned after unarmed black man’s death in Minnesota

Black Lives Matter has planned a protest at 2 p.m. Friday at the Miracle Mile Shops.

Demonstrators will be marching for justice for George Floyd and Regis Korchinski, a black man and woman who died immediately following their interactions with police, according to a Black Lives Matter flyer.

Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis on Monday night after an employee at a local grocery store called Minneapolis police and said the man had tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

A cellphone video of his subsequent arrest shows Floyd on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back while police officer Derek Chauvin presses him to the pavement with his knee on Floyd’s neck with three other officers at the scene. The unarmed man complained that he couldn’t breathe, and minutes later, paramedics lifted his limp body onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.

All four officers have been fired from the department. The FBI and Hennepin County prosecutors said Thursday they were reviewing evidence, and they held a news conference asking for anybody with more evidence or video to come forward to help the investigation.

Floyd’s death has sparked unrest in Minneapolis, where conflict between protesters and police officers has erupted three days in a row. On Tuesday, officers in riot gear fired tear gas at protesters, some damaging property as they marched more than 2 miles. During Wednesday’s protests, some protesters threw rocks and bottles at police. A police precinct was torched and destroyed early Friday.

Korchinski, 29, fell to her death from her Toronto apartment’s balcony after she called police for help, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Police said they responded to the apartment four minutes after they received a “frantic” call reporting an assault, CBC reported. The officers found Korchinski, her brother and her mother in the hallway outside the apartment, and “words were exchanged” before Korchinski went into the apartment to use the restroom, the family’s lawyer told CBC.

Korchinski’s brother said he saw multiple officers follow his sister into the apartment and his sister yelled out, “Mom help,” multiple times before she died, CBC reported.