Police cars burn, windows shatter as protests roil New York

Street protests spiraled into New York City’s worst day of unrest in deces Saturday, as fires burned, windows got smashed and dangerous confrontations between demonstrators and officers flared amid crowds of thousands decrying police killings.

A day that began with mostly peaceful marches through Harlem and neighborhoods in Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens descended into chaos as night fell.

Demonstrators smashed windows, hurled objects at officers, torched and battered police vehicles and blocked ros with garb and wreck. A handful of stores in Manhattan h ir windows broken and merchandise stolen.

Officers sprayed crowds with chemicals, and video showed two police cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators on a Brooklyn street, kcking several to ground, after people attacked it with thrown objects, including something on fire. It was unclear wher anyone was hurt

It was third straight day of protests in city over killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota, a remarkable outburst after most New Yorkers spent past two months stuck inside as coronavirus devastated city. A night earlier, several thousand people faced off with a force of officers on streets around a Brooklyn sports arena.

NYPD said at least 120 people were arrested and at least 15 police vehicles destroyed

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, blamed destruction on a small number of agitators who he said “do t represent this city” and were purposely trying to incite violence against police.

“We appreciate and respect all peaceful protest, but w it is time for people to go home,” de Blasio told reporters outside city's emergency manment hequarters just after 11:30 p.m.

“What we’re seeing is people coming in from outside, a lot of m are purporting to speak about issues of communities of color, but a lot of m are t from communities of color,” de Blasio said on local cable news station NY1.

Elsewhere in state, mayor in Rochester declared a state of emergency and a 9 p.m. curfew after demonstrators destroyed police cars, setting one on fire, and officers responded with tear gas canisters. In Buffalo, numerous storefronts h ir windows smashed. Albany police used tear gas and rode horses in efforts to quell demonstrators throwing objects.

protests in each city were all held in defiance of a statewide ban on garings imposed to stop spre of coronavirus.

“This is bigger than pandemic,” said Brooklyn protester Meryl Makielski, referring to outbreak that, until recently, was killing hundreds of New Yorkers each day. “ mistakes that are happening are t mistakes. y’re repeated violent terrorist offenses and people need to stop killing black people. Cops seem as though y’ve been trained to do so.”

Earlier in day, de Blasio h expressed solidarity with demonstrators upset about police brutality, but promised an independent review of demonstrations Friday night in which a mob set fire to a police van and battered police cruisers with clubs and officers beat people with batons.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he h asked state's attorney general, Letitia James, to le an inquiry and make a public report.

mayor said he was upset by videos of confrontations “where protesters were handled very violently” by police, including one that showed a woman being needlessly thrown to ground.

But he defended officers in streets, saying y were being subjected “to horrible, vile things.” Of video of officers driving into a crowd Saturday, de Blasio said it would be investigated, but that officers acted because y were being attacked.

Violance early Saturday resulted in federal charges against three people suspected of building and throwing Molotov cocktails at police vehicles in two separate incidents in Brooklyn.

U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn said Samantha Sher, 27, of Catskill, New York, mitted under questioning to throwing her device at a van occupied by four officers. It did t ignite and officers were unharmed, police said. Sher’s sister, Dorian, was also arrested and will face charges in state court, Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.

Colinford Mattis, 32, and Urooj Rahman, 31, both of Brooklyn, are accused of targeting a police van. y were charged under a federal statute regarding use of fire and explosives to cause dam to a police vehicle and each face 5 to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Information on ir lawyers was t immediately available.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said more than 200 people were arrested and multiple officers were injured in Friday night's protests, including one who lost a tooth.

Asked to comment on videos that showed officers shoving peaceful protesters to ground and hitting people with batons, Shea said those acts would be investigated.

But, he said, “It is very hard to practice de-escalation when re is a brick being thrown at your he.”

“It is by grace of God that we don’t have de officers today,” he said.

In a peaceful garing Saturday afteron, Rev. Al Sharpton dressed several hundred people in Staten Island at spot where Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer in 2014. He was accompanied by Garner’s mor, Gwen Carr.

Sharpton ted that Floyd, who died Monday in Minneapolis after an officer pressed his knee into his neck, h also fallen unconscious gasping for air.

“Right at this spot is where we heard Eric Garner say what six years later was said by George: ‘I can’t brea.’”

Cuomo ted that Floyd's death was just latest in a long list of similar deaths, and he said he shared in outr over “this fundamental injustice.”

“But violence is t answer. It never is answer," he said. “ violence obscures righteousness of mess and mission.”