According to the Justice Department, two St. Paul, Minn., Men pleaded guilty to a fire at a Minnesota police station during George Floyd’s protests last May.
The men, 25-year-old Davon De-Andre Turner and Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit arson. Turner filed his plea on Friday, and Wolfe pleaded guilty on December 22.
US attorney Erica H. MacDonald announced both pleas on Friday.
The hearing on Wolfe’s conviction is scheduled for April 22, while Turner’s will be held on May 13.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s Third District, where the agents involved in Floyd’s death were working at the time. Since then, the four law enforcement officers have been criminally charged and Minneapolis has made changes to create more accountability.
In late May 2020, images of bystanders posted to the internet showed former police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee in Floyd’s neck. Floyd said he was unable to breathe during the incident, but Chauvin continued to hold his knee against his neck for several minutes. Floyd then unresponsive and was pronounced dead shortly after.
His death sparked nationwide protests that lasted into the summer of 2020, including in the state of Minnesota.
Both Turner and Wolfe found themselves among the crowd of protesters outside the district on the night of May 28, when the crowd began to chant “Burn it down.”
After the fence erected around the perimeter of the district was pulled down, Turner, along with co-defendant Bryce Michael Williams, reportedly took an incendiary device to the station and set fire to it. Shortly afterward, Wolfe pushed a barrel into a fire lit at a second location within the police station, which he admitted to doing with the intention of speeding up the flames, according to a Justice Department document.
Williams and Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, another man allegedly involved, were previously charged for their roles.
Chauvin is charged with murder and manslaughter, which he will begin on March 8.
The other three officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane and Tou Thao, will face trial on 23 August.