Minnesota senators continue investigations into riots following George Floyd’s death

A Minnesota Senate Committee on Wednesday continued investigations into the riots that erupted following the death of George Floyd.

A hearing was held at the State Capitol that included emotional testimony from Minneapolis police officers.

It’s been six weeks since the riots but the emotion is still raw regarding Floyd’s death and the ensuing riots, including the decision to abandon the Third Precinct building.

"I’ve never been more publicly humiliated to serve on a department full of leaders who thought that our building was nothing but bricks and mortar," said officer Rich Walker.

Walker and Sgt. Anna Hedberg, who are also both police union officials, said the building symbolized law enforcement, and it was painful to be ordered to not defend the precinct which put officers at risk.

"To know they could have died because we’re not allowed to respond the way we were trained to respond to those situations, to hear our leadership talk about we’re using too many munitions, too much gas. It looks bad," Hedberg said. "Let’s just give them the precinct, it’s just brick and mortar."

The head of the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s head also spoke about protests on highways.

Sen. Melisa Franzen, DFL-Edina, criticized Republicans for not focusing on what caused the riots and protests.

"We did not talk about, again, what caused those reactions of thousands of people protesting in the streets and why people are tired of the public safety system that fails to protect them," Franzen said.

Authorities say it will take $10 million to replace the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct building.

Another hearing was originally scheduled for Thursday to hear from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey but that meeting has been canceled after Frey didn’t respond.