[25] Several nights of civil disorder in Brooklyn Center and adjacent cities resulted in sporadic looting and damage to a few hundred properties,[26] including four businesses that were set on fire.

[49] In 2020 and 2021, the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan region experienced a prolonged period of protests and intermittent unrest over issues of police brutality and racial justice, beginning soon after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.

[58][59] By early April 2021, state officials had already begun mobilizing law enforcement and National Guard troops, in an effort referred to as "Operation Safety Net", in preparation for a verdict in the Chauvin trial.

[29][60] On April 11, 2021, at 1:48 p.m., officer Kimberly Potter with the police department of Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a black man, during a traffic stop.

[81] The Brooklyn Center City Council passed a resolution banning choke holds and use of dangerous crowd control tactics such as tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and protester kettling.

[84] At one point during the day, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot stood outside the police station alongside protesters and spoke to the gathered crowd about ensuring justice and accountability for the shooting of Wright.

Most of the crowd was described as peaceful, but some who gathered threw objects at the National Guard members, State Patrol officers, and Hennepin County sheriff's deputies outside the police building.

[84] Approximately 1,000 people gathered outside the Brooklyn Center police headquarters during the day in a peaceful rally that had a festival atmosphere and free food provided by a local non-profit organization.

[108][109] In a press conference, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot publicly disagreed with the police department's counter-protest measure tactics, such as firing pepper stray, tear gas, and paintballs at demonstrators.

He said that “gassing is not a human way of policing.”[84] That evening, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright issued a two-week-long restraining order saying that police could not arrest journalists covering the protests, use force or chemical agents against them, or seize their camera equipment or press passes.

They later deployed flash-bangs and then advanced on the crowd at approximately 10:05 p.m. At 10:40 p.m., Brooklyn Center officials issued a curfew for 11 p.m.[111][30][31] Law enforcement ushered journalists through checkpoints to verify credentials before releasing them.

It is not befitting groups that are there to recognize the tragedy that is the loss of Daunte Wright.”[114] Brooklyn Center and Champlin issued an 11 p.m. curfew for Saturday, April 17, 2021, ahead of planned protests for the day.

[115] Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot called for law enforcement to use more restraint by not firing munitions or tear gas into the crowd and by not kettling those who protest peacefully.

[116] An approximately 100-person rally led by local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong took place outside the home of Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, the official who brought manslaughter charges against Potter.

[121] At approximately 4:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 18, 2021, in the Jordan neighborhood of Minneapolis, several gun shots were fired from a passing SUV at National Guard troops stationed near Penn and Broadway.

[128] A coalition of women's organizations that gathered there called for Potter to face a more serious murder charge and for officials to end Operation Safety Net, a law enforcement initiative set up to maintain order during protests.

Twenty activist groups coordinated a large demonstration and march through the streets in Minneapolis near the Hennepin County Government Center building where the trial of Derek Chauvin was held.

Protesters made several demands: lengthy sentences for the officers involved in George Floyd's murder, police reform legislation in Minnesota, to have charged dropped against demonstrators in Brooklyn Center and at other recent events, and for officials to end Operation Safety Net and other counter-protest measures.

[139] A protest occurred on April 26, 2021, outside the home of Washington County attorney Peter Orput in Stillwater, Minnesota, that resulted in a confrontation between demonstrators and neighborhoods that directed racial slurs at the group gathered in the street.

[140] To mark the three-week anniversary of Wright's death on May 2, 2021, several hundred demonstrators and members of his family marched from the location where he died to the Brooklyn Center police station.

[84]Demonstrators on November 6, 2021, gathered outside a downtown Minneapolis condominium building that they believed to be Judge Regina Chu's residence to demand that the State v. Potter trial be broadcast live for public view.

The security measures at the Hennepin County Government Center were more lax than during the trial of Derek Chauvin the proceeding April, and downtown Minneapolis calmly awaited the verdict with relatively few businesses boarding up.

[159] Protesters objected to review of the shooting of Wright by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the standard protocol in the state for officer-involved deaths, and preferred that there be an independent investigation.

Local officials had proactively mobilized several law enforcement agencies and the Minnesota National Guard in an effort referred to as Operation Safety Net, to prepare for potential unrest during Chauvin's trial or as a result of it.

The volunteers used passive tactics, such as standing between lines of demonstrator who wielded umbrellas and formed an addition perimeter to the security fencing outside the Brooklyn Center police station.

[15] Community groups in Brooklyn Center organized food drives and donation drop-offs to help people affected by temporary closures of grocery stores and other businesses caused by the April unrest.

[170] Representative Maxine Waters' comments at a protest rally in Brooklyn Center on April 17, 2021, drew criticism for heightening tension[171] and were denounced by conservative media and Republican politicians.

[172] On April 19, 2021, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's attorney unsuccessfully argued in court that comments made by Representative Waters during a Brooklyn Center protest should result in a mistrial.

Residents near the Brooklyn Center police station, who were affected by the clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement authorities, complained of having tear gas make its way into their apartments.

[37] Cortez Rice, a resident of Minneapolis and local activist, was charged in Hennepin County for harassment involving retaliation against a judicial officer for the November 6, 2021, protest outside a condominium believed to belong to Regina Chu, the judge presiding over the Potter trial.