Monday morning news - June 22, 2020

Shooting in Minneapolis and Seattle » Minneapolis police responded to a shooting in the city’s Uptown district just after midnight Saturday. The violence left one man dead and 11 people wounded.

AUDIO: [Sound from downtown Minneapolis]   

In a video posted to Facebook just after the shooting, small crowds gathered to survey the damage bullets did to some bar and restaurant storefronts. 

Investigators say they believe there was more than one gunman but haven’t said what might have prompted the shooting. They haven’t made any arrests so far.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of Sunday, Seattle police tried to respond to a shooting inside the city’s autonomous protest zone known as CHOP. 

But when police entered the downtown area, a crowd blocked their way.

AUDIO: Please, get out of the way so we can get to the victim.

Eventually, police did reach two victims. One died and the other is in critical condition. 

Mike Solen heads the Seattle police officers union. He told KIRO-7, Seattle lawmakers need to disband the protest zone. 

AUDIO: The community is at grave risk. And the men and women that provide that professional public service are at grave risk as well.

As of Sunday night, police had not made any arrests in the shooting.

More Statues Come Down » Over the weekend, protesters tore down more statues they say represent White Supremacy and racism. 

AUDIO: [Protestors cheering]

In San Francisco, demonstrators cheered as they toppled statues of Union general Ulysses S. Grant and Francis Scott Key. Key penned the national anthem and was a slave-owner. 

In downtown Los Angeles, demonstrators removed the statue of a Catholic saint known for founding Spanish missions throughout California. One protestor told ABC-7 why it had to come down. 

SOUND: The legacy of policing we see now began with the mission system. So it’s important to reconcile with that.

SOUND: [Spectators cheering]

And in Raleigh, North Carolina, on-lookers cheered Sunday morning as work crews finished removing a Confederate soldiers statue outside the North Carolina State Capitol. On Friday night, protestors had started tearing down the monument themselves. 

Crews also took down two other monuments dedicated to the Confederacy. 

COVID-19 cases continue to rise » The World Health Organization announced Sunday the largest single-day increase in new global coronavirus cases. More than 183,000 cases in just 24 hours.

Brazil had the most with nearly 55,000 people testing positive, followed by the United States with about 37,000.

In the United States, Johns Hopkins University data shows eight states had their highest seven-day averages of new COVID-19 cases to date. Those are Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Oklahoma.

Trump rally in Oklahoma » Despite the spike in coronavirus cases and health officials’ warnings against a mass gathering, President Trump returned to the campaign trail Saturday night—holding his first rally since March. 

Inside the Tulsa, Oklahoma, arena, the president declared “the silent majority is stronger than ever.” 

TRUMP: We’re going to stop the radical Left. We’re going to build a future of safety and opportunity for Americans of every race, color, religion, and creed. 

In remarks that lasted nearly two hours, President Trump talked about the recent DACA Supreme Court decision, China, the media, and the economy. He also said burning the American flag should be illegal.

TRUMP: We ought to come up with legislation that if you burn the American flag, you go to jail for one year. 

Tulsa officials say just 6,200 supporters gathered in an arena that can seat three times as many people. 

The Trump campaign attributed the lower-than-expected turnout to protests in the area that “interfered with supporters… which prevented people from entering the rally.”

President fires AG in New York » House Democrats want to hear from the now former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman. President Trump fired Berman on Saturday after he refused to step down.

The administration’s disagreement with Berman went public late Friday when Attorney General Bill Barr issued a press release saying Berman was stepping down. Berman fired back with a statement of his own saying he had no intention of leaving his post. The president fired him the next day.

Congressman Adam Schiff told NBC’s Meet the Press that Berman “clearly had concerns about why he was being pushed out.”

SCHIFF: I certainly hope that he will come and testify before Congress, and I know chairman Nadler intends to investigate this, and he should. It’s, you know, I think, the most disastrous management of the Justice Department in modern memory.

Berman’s office is investigating several cases with ties to the president, including his inaugural fundraising and overseas actions by the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

GOP Senator Tim Scott of North Carolina told ABC’s The Week the investigations would continue.

SCOTT: Everyone in the DOJ works at the pleasure of the president, number one. Number two, there’s no indication whatsoever that whatever’s being investigated will not continue to move on.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Berman in early 2018. But the president never formally nominated him.

(Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via AP) Megan Culverhouse, an employee at John Fluevog shoe store, cleans up broken glass from a window that was hit by gunfire from an early morning shooting Sunday, June 21, 2020, in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood. 

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