Minneapolis has agreed to pay $2 million to six people who say police officers fired rubber projectiles at them while they stood guard outside a gas station during the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder, with court judgments filed Monday. The plaintiffs are friends and family of the gas station’s owners, who had watched the business get looted by rioters and returned on the night of May 30, 2020, to protect what remained.
As reported by MPR News, the judgments do not amount to an admission of guilt by the city. The incident took place at the Stop N Shop gas station on East Lake Street, where police fired less-lethal rounds from a van and used chemical spray during the encounter, according to News From The States. The SWAT team had been assigned to enforce a citywide curfew along the commercial corridor after days of arson, per that outlet’s reporting.
The $2 million judgment is associated with a lawsuit captioned *Awaijane et al v. Bittell et al*.
A Familiar Name From a Previous Case
Stetson’s presence in the case is notable because he was also involved in a separate excessive force incident during the 2020 unrest, one that became one of the most closely watched police accountability cases to come out of that period. He was convicted in 2023 of assaulting Jaleel Stallings, an Army veteran who had fired at the unmarked police van that night, believing he was under attack by civilians…