St. Cloud police made multiple arrests and used tear gas again early Tuesday morning on protesters, fueled by continued false information spread on social media concerning the wounding of an officer by an 18-year-old suspect, who damaged a business and set a fire in a neighborhood just south of the city's downtown.
The mayor of St. Cloud called spreading false information "extremely dangerous," and expressed hope that the unrest will end.
"Hopefully, calmer heads will prevail," said Dave Kleis, appearing on the WCCO Morning News with Dave Lee. "There is never any justification to violence and destruction of property."
It was early Monday when the 14-year veteran of the St. Cloud police department got into a scuffle with the suspect and suffered a hand wound. He is recovering following surgery, while the suspect, identied by the BCA as Sumaree Dashon Bosse of St. Cloud, remains in custody and will face charges.
The misinformation reportedly began to flow on social media, including the false report that children were shot by officers.
About 100 people marched to St. Cloud police headquarters but were dispersed by officers using tear gas and chemical irritants.
Similar crowd control measures were used by police again nearly 24 hours later in the same area of St. Cloud where the scuffle happened.
"Unfortunately, both the night before with the misinformation, just some really dangerous information on social media, and we understand there was some more (false) information last night," said Kleis. "False information causes tension and it creates a crowd. But our folks again were very professional, and I have a tremendous amont of admiration for the folks who serve our community."