In somewhat shocking news, a Minneapolis man was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for setting fire to the Target corporate headquarters during the 2020 Minneapolis riots.
Live streamers spread false information that Minneapolis police had shot and killed a man in downtown Minneapolis at the time. This sparked the riot that began in the late afternoon hours of Aug. 26, 2020 months after the George Floyd riots that ravaged the city and destroyed hundreds of businesses.
Leroy Lemonte Perry Williams, now 37, was one of several people who subsequently engaged in activity that included arson, looting, burglaries, assaults on police, and property damage that continued through that evening in downtown and other areas of Minneapolis.
Williams and two others were eventually charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit arson for the fire that damaged Target Corporation’s corporate headquarters building located at 1000 Nicollet Mall.
Surveillance images showed Williams joining the crowds rioting in downtown Minneapolis that night, first outside the Target store on Nicollet Mall, then looting a Speedway gas station a few blocks away and finally at the Target Corporation headquarters building in downtown Minneapolis.
People are INCORRECTLY live streaming saying this was OIS. There is also a protest that was already forming #MplsDowntown. Police sound VERY concerned about this false information being live streamed.
— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) August 26, 2020
According to court documents, Williams repeatedly used a lighter inside the building to ignite cardboard. An unidentified male intervened in Williams’ attempts by confronting him.
Court records show that Williams was previously offered a plea deal on the arson charge in January 2021, but later withdrew his plea, which led to a jury trial in October last year when he was found guilty.
Williams’ sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Williams’ co-defendants Victor Devon Edwards and Shador Tommie Cortez Jackson were previously sentenced to 100 months and 33 months, respectively, in federal prison for their roles in the Target arson.
Are the pigs flying, and we haven’t been informed?
Seeing a BLM rioter have consequences for burning down America based on lies seems unusual to say the least.