A woman in a wheelchair was pushed, punched and sprayed with a fire extinguisher after being accused of “stabbing people” outside a Target store in Minneapolis during Wednesday night’s chaotic protest over the death of George Floyd.
Conflicting accounts on social media described her both as a disabled woman who was trying to block looters from breaking into the store and as a violent assailant who was armed with a knife and threatening to hurt protesters.
One of the videos that were shared on Twitter shows the woman, identified online as “Jennifer,” attempting to block a Target emergency door as a crowd of people urges her to move and shouts incoherently.
“She’s stabbing people… she’s got a knife!” a woman was heard screaming at some point.
The footage, which was also shared by conservative writer Andy Ngô, shows one of the people spraying her with a fire extinguisher and throwing objects at her.
But several social media users mocked the woman and accused her of pretending to be disabled. Another clip that surfaced online shows a woman who appears to be “Jennifer” effortlessly walking toward a group of protesters before returning to her wheelchair.
In a video posted by Twitter user Kaecia Williams, the wheelchair-bound woman claimed she was “peacefully protesting” when looters attacked her, grabbed her from behind and stole her keys.
It was not immediately clear if she was seriously injured, but she said in the video that emergency workers had already seen her and told her to go home.
It was just one of a series of chaotic incidents unfolding across Minneapolis this week as anger over Floyd’s death continues to cause violent protests, with at least one person being killed amid the chaos Wednesday night.
The large majority of demonstrators have been marching peacefully since Monday’s fatal arrest and demanding justice in the case, but a number of vandals have taken advantage of the commotion to break into private businesses, including Target and Foot Locker, and destroy public properties.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black father of two, died shortly after a white cop knelt over his neck for more than five minutes, ignoring the dying man’s repeated pleas that he couldn’t breathe. Four officers have lost their jobs over the incident, but no charges have been filed.
