A police union leader has slammed Brooklyn Center’s mayor for ‘letting political activists run the show’ after a Black Lives Matter activist berated the newly appointed acting police chief as ‘trash’ during a news conference on Tuesday.
In response to public outrage, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott fired his chief of police in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of black man Daunte Wright by a white female cop during a traffic stop in the city.
On Tuesday, Elliott held a news conference announcing that he was promoting Commander Tony Gruenig, a 19-year veteran of the force, to the position of acting police chief.
Elliott praised Gruenig as ‘someone who has spent a lot of time working with the community’ and who ‘knows Brooklyn Center well.’
Gruenig then gave a short statement to the assembled media and several community activists, including a few who were wearing Black Lives Matter shirts.
‘It’s very chaotic right now,’ Gruenig told reporters.
‘We were informed less than an hour ago [promotion], we’re just trying to wrap our heads around the situation.
‘We’d like some calm for the community as we try to wrap our heads around the entire situation.’
But the news conference grew tense as a woman standing toward the back of the room berated the newly appointed police chief.
The woman, wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, blasted the chief for ‘not being able to wrap his head around…what went on with Daunte Wright.’
She demanded that Gruenig show ‘empathy, sympathy, and compassion.’
‘You need to look yourself in the mirror and speak to your own core of your heart,’ the woman told Gruenig.
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