'Go inside': Officers shot residents on their porches with paintballs in Tim Walz's Minnesota amid Covid lockdowns, riots

In May 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd riots in Minneapolis as well as Covid-19 lockdowns, law enforcement shot paint rounds at residents standing on their porch in Minneapolis under Tim Walz's governorship.

The video, as reported by the Daily Mail at the time, shows several Minneapolis residents standing on their porch in the later part of May as law enforcement is passing by. At the time, a curfew was being enforced amid the chaos going on. As the officers walked by the house, the residents were ordered to go inside with the officers yelling, "Go inside!" as well as "Get in your house now!"

When the residents hesitated to go inside, one law enforcement official said, "Light 'em up," after which the officers fired the paint rounds at the resident striking one on the leg, as seen in the video. In an email statement, the National Guard said, “The enforcement officers in this tweet are not members of the Minnesota National Guard." A curfew was imposed on Minneapolis at the time after three days of riots and protests.

According to the New York Times, Sam Rhode, the one who was hit by the paint round, had a gash on his person that turned into an eight-inch bruise over the next couple of weeks. “If they had one guy talk to people and say, ‘Here’s why you need to go inside,’ it wouldn’t have taken them any more time."

As Walz has become the VP pick for the Kamala Harris campaign, many have taken issue with his handling of the George Floyd riots when they occurred in 2020. Some have been critical for him being slow to bring in the National Guard in order to bring control of the situation. Other issues, such as his stance on children choosing their own gender, have also come up. 

Editor’s note: The headline of this story was changed to include additional context involving the 2020 riots in Minnesota.