Police officers discovered caches of bricks and rocks around the sites of protests, Kansas City officials said.
“We have learned of and discovered stashes of bricks and rocks in and around the Plaza and Westport to be used during a riot,” the Kansas City Police Department said in a statement.
Riots took place in Missouri’s largest city over the weekend, with people torching cars, hurling items at police officers, and damaging property alongside or near peaceful protests.
The bricks were “left in a couple of areas,” Capt. David Jackson told reporters Sunday.
Police haven’t identified which people or groups stashed the bricks and rocks.
“I don’t know who would have put them there. I don’t think they’re doing any type of construction or anything like that. I sense that they’re probably there for nefarious use,” he added.
Police officials in Corsicana, in another part of the state, said residents noticed over a dozen bricks stacked near an intersection.
“We hope there was a legitimate reason but with this being an MO in some of the other larger cities that are experiencing civil unrest we would rather play it safe. The bricks have been removed,” Corsicana Police Chief Robert Johnson said in a statement.
The St. Petersburg Police Department in Florida, meanwhile, found an SUV with bricks, bottles, a gas canister, a bag of large rocks, and a metal pipe. They arrested three people found inside, identified as 29-year-old Lady Nicole Nash, 28-year-old Javonta McCloud, and 28-year-old Eddie Bryant. The trio were each charged with inciting a riot.
Rioters using bricks to smash windows, hurt law enforcement, and add to the mayhem have been captured on camera, along with some sources of the bricks.
“Yo, we got bricks. We got bricks!”—#Rioters in Manhattan chanced upon a cache in the street equipped with bricks and a shovel at 10:01 p.m. on Second Ave between St. Marks Pl. and Seventh St. pic.twitter.com/dYB7vHdYqL
— Kevin R Hogan (@KRHogan_NTD) May 31, 2020
Kevin Hogan, a reporter with The Epoch Times’s sister company NTD, captured rioters coming across a cache of bricks in New York City on May 31. The cache appeared to be part of a construction effort, though no clear endpoint for the bricks was in sight. The NYPD didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Another large pile of bricks was shown outside the Dallas courthouse, while piles were documented in multiple places in North Carolina.
Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall told reporters Saturday that she was nearly hit by a brick, adding: “Everything was peaceful. Then all of a sudden, bricks started hailing, hitting out squad cars, hitting the officers.”
Baltimore police officers discovered piles of bricks and bottles on Monday and were working on removing them, sources told WBFF.
Some of the piles were placed there for construction purposes. City officials in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for instance, said a pile of bricks seen in pictures circulating on social media were placed there for use by Alliant Energy crews.
“This project has been underway for a number of months, moving from block to block. The bricks are being removed,” the city said in a statement.
