Federal Jury Indicts Four on Arson Charges for Burning Minneapolis Police Station

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Aug 26, 2020
Protesters gather around after setting fire to the entrance of a police station as demonstrations continue after a white police officer was caught on a bystander’s video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 28, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A federal grand jury has returned indictments on four men for their role in the burning of the Minneapolis Police Station on May 28th in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

The indictments file one count of conspiracy to commit arson against Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 22, of Brainerd; Davon De-Andre Turner, 24, of St. Paul; Bryce Michael Williams, 26, of Staples; and Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, of St. Paul.

Robinson and Wolfe had already been arrested and charged with abetting and aiding arson for their role in the attack on the police station. Williams had been previously charged before grand jury indictment process, which establishes the four men as codefendants.

Robinson, Williams, and Turner are charged with deploying molotov cocktail devices inside the building to create a serious fire. Wolfe is said to have rolled a barrel full of propellant to stoke the flames.

The Minneapolis Police headquarters arson, which was enabled when the police force retreated from the building and left it to the whims of a violent mob of rioters, was the first major act of vandalism and political violence during the summer of 2020. After the building was burned, tens of thousands of rioters across the country assumed they’d have a free pass to engage in criminal activity.

The indictment clarifies that the four men worked with thus-unidentified co-conspirators, who could face charges as well for their role in attacking the governmental building.

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