Milwaukee County prosecutors filed charges against one woman and nine men in connection with looting after the officer-involved death of George Floyd last month.
The incidents occurred between May 27 and June 1 amid protests over Floyd’s death.
“Everything here was full,” said business operator Sam Ramahi, who owns Trend Benderz. “Everything has been taken out. All my tables are empty.”
“So far, we are estimating damage with inventory anywhere between $600,000 to $700,000,” he added.
Prosecutors told Fox32 that Gilbert and Nelson were among those who swarmed on Trend Benderz, with Gilbert telling police that he was “going to take something from the store” after seeing that someone broke into it.
“I was just praying to God that ... something would just stop the madness” and looting, Ramahi told TMJ4. He said that he doesn’t know if his business will survive after the looting.
“They have the right to be frustrated ... but they don’t have the right to come into small businesses that are owned here locally and destroy them and steal from them” to express their anger, he added.
In Washington, lawmakers also heard testimony from civil rights and law enforcement leaders as Congress considers changes to police practices and accountability after Floyd’s death in police custody in Minnesota and the mass protests that followed.
Republicans are criticizing activists who want to “defund the police”—a catch-all term for shifting law enforcement resources—though the Democratic bill does not call for that. Trump and allies have seized on the phrase to portray Democrats as extreme as GOP lawmakers rush to come up with their own proposals.
Republicans as well as Democrats have called for a national registry of use-of-force incidents, so police officers cannot transfer between departments without public awareness of their records.
