2021 Uptown Minneapolis unrest

Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr., a 32-year-old black American man, in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08 p.m. CDT on June 3, 2021. Smith was being pursued by a U.S. Marshals Service task force that apprehends wanted fugitives. The arrest operation had the participation of undercover agents from several local police agencies in Minnesota. The officers did not use body cameras or dashcams when apprehending Smith, and there is no known video evidence of the June 3 shooting. Controversy over the lack of law enforcement footage of the arrest operation led to local police agencies ceasing aid to the Marshals Service's fugitive task force, and to changes to body and dash camera policies by the Marshals and other federal law enforcement agencies.Several protests were held in reaction to Smith's killing, beginning on June 3, and the Uptown area experienced civil disorder over the subsequent weeks. Deona Marie Knajdek was killed and three others were injured on June 13 after a man rammed his vehicle into a group of demonstrators who had blockaded a street. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, law enforcement authorities said publicly that Smith failed to comply with arresting officers and had brandished a gun. An attorney for the passenger in the vehicle with Smith contradicted the law enforcement description of events. The passenger had not seen a gun on Smith or in the vehicle.An investigation of law enforcement conduct by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) after the shooting said that Smith had brandished a firearm at officers who attempted to arrest him. Authorities said they found a loaded 380 handgun with matching spent shell casings in the vehicle Smith occupied, and that ballistic evidence and DNA samples supported their claim that Smith had fired the weapon during the June 3 encounter. The report also revealed that the passenger had ducked for cover after pleading with Smith to surrender and that she did not visually witness the exchange of gunfire.In September 2021, the BCA sent the case to the Crow Wing County attorney's office to determine if the officers who shot Smith should face criminal charges. In a report released on October 11, 2021, Donald Ryan, the attorney for Crow Wing County, said that the officers’ actions were justified under Minnesota Statutes and that no criminal charges should be filed against them.

Seven Points is an indoor shopping mall opened on February 15, 1984, at the southeast corner of Hennepin Avenue and West Lake Street, the main intersection of the Uptown district of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The building was previously known as Calhoun Square until October 2020.

Deona Marie Knajdek (also reported as Deona Marie Erickson), a 31-year old American woman, was killed on June 13, 2021, when a man drove a car into a crowd of demonstrators who had gathered as a part of the Uptown Minneapolis unrest. That evening, demonstrators protesting the law enforcement killing of Winston Boogie Smith had blocked the intersection of West Lake Street and Girard Avenue. At approximately 11:39 p.m. CDT, a man in a late-model Jeep Cherokee drove into the crowd at a high speed, striking a parked vehicle that had been used to block off the intersection to traffic, which then collided with protesters, killing Knajdek and injuring three others.The driver, Nicholas Kraus of Saint Paul, Minnesota, was charged with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in relation to the crash, after allegedly telling investigators that he had accelerated towards the crowd in an attempt to clear cars acting as barricades. Investigators believed that Kraus might have been intoxicated during the incident. After being charged criminally, Kraus was found mentally competent to stand trial. To avoid trial in late 2022, Kraus pleaded guilty to second degree unintentional murder (the second degree intentional murder charged was dropped) and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He admitted to the court that the night he killed Knajdek he was under the influence of illegal narcotics and that he intentionally drove his car into barricades that blocked the street. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Magers & Quinn (M&Q) is a bookstore located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. It is the largest independent bookseller in the city.

Uptown is a commercial district in southwestern Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota, that is centered at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and West Lake Street. It has traditionally spanned the corners of four neighborhoods, Lowry Hill East, East Bde Maka Ska, South Uptown and East Isles neighborhoods, which are all within the Calhoun Isles community. Historically, the boundaries of Uptown are Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) to the west, Dupont Avenue to the east, 31st Street to the south, and 28th Street to the north; though these borders often vary. Uptown is a popular destination for retail, nightlife, and cultural events, and the district was famously written about by recording artist Prince.

The Uptown Theatre is one of the oldest surviving theaters in the Twin Cities area. It was in active use from 1916 to 2020. The theater is planning to reopen on May 5th, 2023 as a music and event venue.

Walker Library is a public library in the East Isles neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is on Hennepin Avenue one block north of Lake Street, adjoining the Midtown Greenway. Walker and the 14 other libraries of Minneapolis Public Library were merged into the combined urban/suburban Hennepin County Library in 2008.

Sons of Norway (Norwegian: Sønner av Norge), founded in 1895 as the Independent Order of the Sons of Norway, is a fraternal organization principally representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. The organization includes in its mission the promotion and preservation of the heritage and culture of Norway and other Nordic countries and to provide life insurance and other financial products to its members. The organization is classified as a non-profit 501(c)(8) fraternal beneficiary society. Currently, the Sons of Norway has nearly 400 lodges in the United States, Canada, and Norway. With over 57,000 members, the Sons of Norway is the largest Norwegian organization outside of Norway.

The Minneapolis Arena was an indoor ice rink in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, that hosted the various Minneapolis Millers teams from 1925 until 1963 and the Minneapolis Bruins of the Central Hockey League from 1963 until 1965. It held 5,500 people and was located at 2900 Dupont Avenue South in the Uptown district of Minneapolis. The University of Minnesota's Golden Gophers ice hockey team used the arena as one of its primary home rinks from 1925 until 1950. The annual shows of the Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies were held at the venue from 1936 until 1966. Lyle Wright was an events promoter and one of the presidents of the arena, and was later inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Buzza Company Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, is a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The building was originally built in 1907 for the Self-Threading Needle Company. It was built by the Brayton Engineering Company at a cost of $55,000. In 1923 the Buzza Company, a maker of greeting cards, acquired the building. George Buzza remarked, "No sooner had we acquired our new building than we promptly outgrew it." The company built a $200,000 addition along Colfax Avenue, designed by local architects Magney & Tusler. They later built another addition, a five-story structure with a tower saying "BUZZA", at a cost of $150,000. The building was used as Buzza's greeting card design studio from 1923 through 1942, at which point declining sales forced the liquidation of the firm. It was then used by Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company for World War II production.

West High School (1908–1982) was a public high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Edward Stebbins designed the school building. Built in 1908 on what had recently been farmland, the school had a student capacity of 1,600 by 1917. Minneapolis Public Schools closed Central, West and Marshall-University high schools in 1982.

South Uptown is a residential neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2018, the neighborhood voted to change its name to South Uptown from its former name CARAG (Calhoun Area Residents' Action Group). Other potential names for the neighborhood included "Bryant Park" and "Bryant Square". The Minneapolis City Council approved the name change in November 2018.South Uptown is part of the Calhoun Isles community of the city, in the southeastern part of that community. It is located directly south of Lowry Hill East and directly east of East Calhoun. Its boundaries are Lake Street to the north, Lyndale Avenue to the east, 36th Street to the south, and Hennepin Avenue to the west. South Uptown, Lowry Hill East, East Calhoun and East Isles form the business district of Uptown.