Updated 11:50 p.m.
Sunday marked the 10th day people have marched the streets of their towns and neighborhoods around Charlotte to protest racial injustice and police violence against people of color.
In the town of Belmont in Gaston County, more than 100 people gathered outside the police department for a justice march Sunday afternoon.
Belmont Police Chief Chad Hawkins turned out in shorts and a polo shirt to welcome the group and walk with them through downtown. He said the tragedy in Minneapolis is an opportunity to keep building relationships.
"We did not start these conversations at the Belmont Police Department a week and a half ago. We started these conversations years ago. We started the training years ago to ensure that things like this does not happen," Hawkins said.
Later in the afternoon over in the southeast Charlotte neighborhood of Ballantyne, about 300 people came together in front of the Ballantyne Hotel. The group marched along Ballantyne Commons Parkway chanting "silence equals violence," "black lives matter," and the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.
With night approaching, demonstrators gathered in Charlotte's Marshall Park in uptown. It was a relaxed atmosphere with music playing and people signing a banner for George Floyd.
Kass Ottley, one of the organizers of the event in Marshall Park, said this is a chance for protesters to kick back, relax and unwind.
Later in the night as the crowd grew smaller, an altercation with CMPD occurred. In a tweet, CMPD said protesters began shoving an officer who was walking with them on Fourth Street. Other officers responded and removed the officer from the area. Police say that pepper spray was used. Two people were arrested and one officer was injured.
At 10:25pm Protesters began physically shoving a CMPD officer who was walking with them on 4th St. Additional Officers responded and were able to extract him. During the incident, OC spray was utilized against a few individuals. 2 suspects arrested. 1 officer injured.
— CMPD News (@CMPD) June 8, 2020
