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A St. Paul, Minnesota, man pleaded guilty Friday in a fire set inside a Minneapolis police precinct during protests and violent unrest following the death of George Floyd last year, prosecutors said.
Davon De-Andre Turner, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit arson. He is the last of four people whose indictments were announced in August to plead guilty in the fires set in Third Precinct headquarters on May 28.
The fires were set as protesters shouted “burn it down, burn it down,” and after a fence outside the building was torn down, according to court documents.
They occurred days after a Black man, George Floyd, died after his neck was kneeled upon by a white Minneapolis police officer. Floyd’s death caused widespread outrage, and protests for racial justice and police reform occurred across the country.
The four police officers who have since been criminally charged in Floyd’s death worked at that precinct.
The night of the precinct fires, Turner used a Molotov cocktail to start a fire in Minneapolis according to a criminal complaint.
An attorney listed as representing Turner did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment late Friday. Sentencing is scheduled for May 13.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota also announced Friday that a second person accused in a different fire at the precinct that night pleaded guilty.
Branden Michael Wolfe, 25, who pushed a barrel into a fire at the building’s entrance to fuel the blaze, pleaded guilty Dec. 222 to conspiracy to commit arson and is scheduled to be sentenced April 22, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Two others indicted in connection with the fires, Bryce Michael Williams and Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, have previously pleaded guilty.
About 20 structures in Minneapolis were set on the night of the precinct blazes, the fire department has said.
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