Almost 1,000 people gathered around the Des Moines Police Department headquarters Friday evening to protest the death of George Floyd. 

Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died Monday in Minneapolis after police officer Derek Chauvin pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck for at least eight minutes. The officers were responding to reports from a nearby grocery store claiming Floyd made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill.

While the incident was happening, people were recording Floyd laying on his stomach, hands cuffed behind his back and begging the officers to let him up.

“I can’t breathe,” Floyd said repeatedly in the video. 

Chauvin was charged Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter, and the four officers who were involved, including Chauvin, were fired. 

At rallies in cities across the nation Friday, people demanded justice and called for the arrests of the four Minneapolis police officers involved with Floyd’s detainment. 

Protesters at the Des Moines rally also demanded justice for Floyd’s death and changes in the way police deal with the Black community.  

The crowd stood together in solidarity. Some raised their signs into the air, while others bore a single fist. A majority of the crowd wore black in solidarity for the Black community. 

“I would say I’m happy that our community is coming together because honestly, I was not expecting this good of a turnout,” said Rileigh Wilkins, who attended the rally. “We live in such a conservative state that it’s very hard to believe something like this could even occur, the power behind it would even happen.” 

The crowd chanted, “Fuck the police,” “No justice, no peace,” “Prosecute the police” and “Black Lives Matter.”

A man in a Trump hat arrived at the protest and the tension among the crowd grew. The protesters began to boo and shout, “The people united will never be divided,” at the man. 

The tension in the area rose as people yelled more and more, and the crowd eventually created space for the man in the Trump hat to leave the event.

People at the rally called out the police who were watching from the police department windows, chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, these killer cops have got to go.” 

“I just hope it doesn’t become like a violent thing, because it’s just been so peaceful, so I just hope it remains the way it is now,” Wilkins said. 

But as the rally ended at about 8 p.m., the atmosphere took a violent turn. 

Michael Turner, the lead organizer of the rally, wrote a statement that said the rally was organized, peaceful, safe and nonviolent. As the event was concluding, the organizers asked that all attendees disperse peacefully. 

“While we sympathize with the feeling of anger amongst many Americans, we are deeply saddened and disappointed that a small group of protesters have stayed on-site and begun to damage property and antagonize our police force who gracefully supported our cause without disturbance,” Turner wrote in the statement. “We in no way are affiliated with these events and strongly oppose them.” 

Des Moines Police Department Lt. Ryan Doty said the protest had begun to diverge from its original peaceful nature and gestured to a police car behind him that had both the front and back windows bashed in.

“There was a protest because people were upset, obviously, with what transpired in Minnesota and across the country,” Doty said. “It was a peaceful protest. A lot of people had a lot of good things to say.” 

Doty said the crowd began to migrate toward the areas where police officers were gathered, instigating conflict.

“It was a positive thing, everybody coming together like this,” Doty said. “It may end up being tarnished, that message may be tarnished, by throwing bricks and somebody potentially getting hurt.” 

As the officers lining the street began handing each other what appeared to be canisters of mace, Doty told the Iowa State Daily, “I’m sorry, we’re getting ready to go here. You might want to move on.” 

“White people, get in front,” was chanted repeatedly by a man in a mask. When the crowd refused to disperse and instead began throwing rocks, the police reacted with mace.

Protesters scattered as the mace was met with more rocks, which were met with tear gas and mock explosives.

A man rode around on his bike and offered water or milk to those who had been caught in the tear gas, which was thrown repeatedly by the police. The police, in full riot gear complete with plastic shields, marched slowly down East Second Street, repeatedly broadcasting, “You need to disperse now,” to the crowd. 

A woman sat in her car at the end of the street, blasting “Fuck Tha Police” by N.W.A.

Akin to what happened in Minneapolis, looting soon began. The glass storefront of the Hilltop Tire Service on East Walnut Street was repeatedly smashed in with rocks as people entered and exited the store through the impact points to throw tires out onto the street.

Jonathan Palmer, a rally attendee, voiced his disagreement with the looting. 

“We’re Americans, we are better than this,” said Palmer, who also shouted “bad cop, kill him,” referring to Chauvin. “Kill that cop, but we don’t do this [looting].” 

The seemingly endless back-and-forth between the police and the protesters continued until the protesters began to slowly disperse around 9:30 p.m. 

Rachelle Boway, who attended the protest, said she had only been there 30 minutes before being hit with a rubber bullet and tear-gassed. She said she retaliated by throwing a rock.

“These people, they treat us like we’re less than. They treat us like we’re not equal. They treat us like we’re nothing to them,” Boway said. 

“[In] all honesty, these people treat animals better than us,” she said. “I’m from Africa; I’m not scared of nothing.”

A protest will take place at 4 p.m. Saturday at City Hall in Ames. The nonprofit Mothers Against Violence will host a march from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday in Des Moines. On Sunday, Des Moines pastor Rob Johnson, along with other community activists, will lead a candlelight vigil. On Monday, Des Moines-area civil rights advocates April Wells and Charmaine Bell are organizing a “Together we can make a change” memorial that begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Iowa Capitol.