Fredericksburg government offices close early in preparation for additional protests

The Fredericksburg City Government, in an abundance of caution for additional protests, has closed government offices at 2 p.m. according to a press release from the city’s Public Information Officer, Sonja Cantu.

This comes in light of what the city’s Fire Chief, Mike Jones, called a ‘civil disturbance’ that Fredericksburg faced on May 31 when peaceful protests turned unruly and people refused to disperse. Protestors, as well as Virginia Delegate Joshua Cole, were subdued with tear gas by police.

“What started out as a peaceful protest later turned into an angry group of people who would not listen to reason when told to disperse. This resulted in the need to take measures to protect our citizens and their properties. We do not wish to see a repeat of this again,” said Chief Jones.

“Tear gas was deployed to disperse the crowds who threatened innocent bystanders and police, were unsafely blocking streets, throwing rocks, and vandalizing vehicles as well as historic structures after being giving multiple attempts to leave,” said Fredericksburg police spokeswoman Sarah Kirkpatrick.

With additional protests planned for today, June 1, citizens are urged to keep things peaceful.

“We respect the right of people to express their views and when demonstrations or protests are run peacefully, they can be an advantage to a community. When bad actors from outside the area inject themselves with the intent to spread hate and criminal actions, we all as a community lose. Don’t let folks from out of the area come to our great city and make it less of a place. All folks in Fredericksburg work hard each and every day to make this a better place to live. Let’s keep it that way,” said Chief Jones.

The May 31 protests, which were held due to the killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident who was being placed under arrest by a former police officer, Derek Chauvin, began in the early evening with what police estimate to have been 250-300 people. As the crowd marched from Princess Anne Street to Cowan Boulevard, Fredericksburg police declared an unlawful assembly.

“Officers continued to ask protestors to leave the area, which they ignored. At approximately 8:34pm, when the protestors arrived at the intersection of Route One and Cowan Boulevard, they made a straight line for Police Headquarters at which time officers deployed gas,” read a statement from the Fredericksburg police department.

By 10:30 p.m. officers were still trying to disperse protestors, some of whom were ‘throwing rocks at officers’ according to the Fredericksburg police department.

No arrests were made and no police or civilian injuries were reported.

A Declaration of Local Emergency was later declared by City Manager, Time Baroody and Fredericksburg Police requested that residents shelter-in-place. A curfew of 11:30 p.m.- 6 a.m. was then placed on the city, but has now been lifted.