Authorities found the charred body of a man in the wreckage of a south Minneapolis pawnshop, nearly two months after the building was torched in the rioting that followed George Floyd’s death.
Investigators from the Minneapolis Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the state fire marshal’s division were acting on a tip when they discovered the body Monday morning in the rubble of Max It Pawn, at 2726 E. Lake St., according to Police Department spokesman John Elder.
“The body appears to have suffered thermal injury and we do have somebody charged with setting fire to that place,” said Elder, adding that city homicide detectives had taken over the investigation. He said that the victim’s identity would be released by medical examiners after an autopsy is completed, along with the precise cause and manner of death.
The site is several blocks east of the shuttered Third Precinct police station, the epicenter of the protests that broke out after Floyd’s death May 25 under the knee of a since-fired city police officer. That officer, Derek Chauvin, is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and three other officers at the scene, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, are charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin.
Details about the circumstances and timeline of the case remained hazy Monday, but a police news release suggested that the man died in the blaze that destroyed the building on May 28.
A 25-year-old Rochester man, Montez Terrill Lee, was federally charged last month with arson in connection with the fire. – READ MORE
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