St. Paul community members cleaning up debris after damage from George Floyd protests

On Friday afternoon, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS saw firefighters putting out hotspots and doing preventative work at the pile of rubble that used to be Bole Ethiopian Restaurant and Napa Auto Parts at the corner of University Avenue and Syndicate Street. Now, it’s all debris.

St. Paul neighbors coming together to clean up spray paint and rubble. Others were hired to board up businesses; all after people damaged buildings protesting the killing of George Floyd.

Alex Gjavenis, who works at GM Northrop Corporation said: "It’s sad. It’s sad for the community and it’s sad for our customers I mean we love working with them. Now they’re going to lose out on a ton of business too but I mean it’s also it’s hard to say that there’s also a guy that died so how do you justify that you know I don’t know what to think."

People paused from sweeping debris to tell us what happened to Floyd hits home because they say it could’ve been them.

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"They murdered my brother, they murdered my father, the four (sic) of them stood back and assisted in the murder of my brother and my father they must go to jail there is no other way to say it," said Rev. Dr. Ronald Bell, the Pastor at Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church.

After murder and manslaughter charges were announced against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, we asked people who were taking in all of the damage, their perspective.

"I think it’s deserved I think it’s what the community has wanted and it’s the reason for all of this," said Anne Boyer, a St. Paul resident.

Thelmalee Titus, St. Paul resident, added, "I am glad and I hope that he is convicted of murder and I also think that the people won’t be satisfied until the other three officers and the officers involved are also charged as well."

On this day of cleaning up, people said there’s much reflection. While cleaning rubble, a Frogtown resident explained she had a surprisingly difficult, but meaningful, interaction with a man who told her people should have already been doing more to fight for equality.

"I think people of color have been asking and demanding change for a long time and I think that white people just haven’t stepped up and we haven’t because we’ll never understand their experience, it’s hard for us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes and I think last night in St. Paul when people were scared, I think that’s what black people have felt for a long time that certainty and that fear and we need to feel that so that we are more motivated to make the change that we need," Nadine Wetzel-Curtis, a Frogtown resident, said.