A 28-year-old man has been arrested in connection to the drive-by shooting of a group of Minnesota National Guard soldiers this week that left two injured.
The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Andrew Thomas with one count of illegal possession of a firearm on Monday. Minneapolis police say they arrested Thomas Sunday night driving the vehicle caught on camera during the shooting.
On Sunday, at 4:20 a.m., multiple shots were fired out of a light-colored SUV passing the team of soldiers, along with a Minneapolis police officer, near Penn Avenue North and West Broadway Avenue. One of the shots pierced the windshield of a vehicle with four soldiers inside, according to charging documents. One soldier was injured by broken glass; the other sustained “superficial injuries,” the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“I am relieved to know none of our Guardsmen were seriously injured,” said Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke earlier this week. “This event highlights the volatility and tension in our communities right now. I ask for peace as we work through this difficult time.”
The soldiers are part of Operation Safety Net, a joint effort among the Minneapolis Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the State of Minnesota and local jurisdictions that have been activated in response to protests of police violence in the Twin Cities.
Many have been critical of the armed military presence in their communities. Popular chants included demands for the soldiers to “Go home” last week in Brooklyn Center, where hundreds of demonstrators turned out multiple nights in a row in response to a police officer killing Daunte Wright, an unarmed Black man in that city.
Hours after the shooting, around 10 p.m. on Sunday, police officers spotted an SUV matching the description in south Minneapolis and pulled the vehicle over. Police found two guns in the car and arrested Thomas, the driver, according to charges.
Thomas, who court records list with a Minneapolis or a Chicago address, was barred from legally possessing a gun based on a 2017 felony third-degree assault conviction in Hennepin County.
Thomas was booked in Hennepin County jail, and was released to the custody of U.S. marshals on Tuesday morning.
Andy Mannix
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The NG should refuse to be assigned to hazardous locations like Minneapolis or DC if they are not carrying live ammunition at all times. Simple instructions to return fire. Let that happen a time or two and it probably won’t happen again.
THat’s why i wonder, WHAT THE HELL is going on with the ‘guard leadership’?
WHY are they continually allowing their troops to get deployed, WITHOUT ARMS!
Meanwhile in DC jails, how many Trump supporters are still languishing in cells over 3 months because all most of them did was non-violently support President Trump??
Hell, how many have already been DENIED a bail hearing?
“A 28-year-old man has been arrested”????? No, a piece of garbage was arrested. Secondly, what good is it when the National Guard is put on the streets and they are not allowed to protect themselves? Our Country is a lawless joke.
I certainly HOPE i see a mass exodus of troops FROM THE GUARD, cause of this..
Charged only with illegal possession of a gun? How about attempted homicide?
yes this must be a DemonRAT!
More of that black privilege.
This “mostly peaceful protestor” who has been arrested in Minneapolis for a drive-by shooting that injured two National Guard soldiers was simply following the advice of hate-mongering Democrat Representative Maxine Waters who had recently gone to the city and demanded that violent protestors become even more “confrontational”. As the Democrats in the White House and the Congress continue to increase the tone of their hateful rhetoric against the political opposition, we can expect to have a growing number of increasingly violent and potentially deadly attacks against anyone, including members of law enforcement, who does not support the left’s divisive and destructive agenda.
The Democrats’ widespread use of what I call “Critical Hate Theory” in business organizations and the schools has further poisoned race relations between Whites and minorities. Unless the leaders of the Democrat party abandon their reliance on violent, hateful rhetoric to advance their political agenda and make a sincere effort to start uniting the nation, I fear that we will experience social unrest not seen since the Civil War.
Part of me honesly believes they WANT a new civil war to happen..
The second amendment as purposed by the founding fathers sure seems to be what the communists DON’T want the American patriots to have at their disposal.
Of course not – it is far easier to round up subjects without firearms than citizens with firearms.
Just like every totalitarian society through out history.. YOU CANNOT control an armed population!