New details shed light on destructive night of protest in Vacaville
(Photo by Matthew Keys/Solano NewsNet)
The Vacaville Police Department on Monday confirmed details about a destructive protest as first reported by Solano NewsNet on Sunday while also providing more information on what led up to the vandalism there.
The vandalism came during an anti-police protest spearheaded by the grassroots group “Voices of VV,” which has organized weekly rallies at Andrew’s Park every Sunday since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers last summer.
While participants typically use anti-law enforcement slogans during their rallies, they’re otherwise non-violent. But that wasn’t the case last night.
Shortly after the start of Sunday’s protest, a group of agitators began spray-painting businesses and infrastructure around Andrew’s Park, the police department confirmed in a release on Monday. They also reportedly targeted occupied vehicles, smashing the windows of at least two cars, police said.
As the group headed toward City Hall and the Vacaville Police Department’s headquarters, the agitators continued their mission of destruction before finally targeting both municipal buildings themselves.
City Hall buildings adjacent to the police department’s headquarters suffered the most amount of damage, with shattered windows and vandalized walls and signs throughout the complex, according to a Solano NewsNet photographer who went to the scene last night.
Protesters did not enter either building, the Vacaville Police Department said in a social media post on Sunday. But some appeared ready for a riot: Police confirmed they located a shopping cart with machetes and seized a vehicle with helmets and other tactical gear inside.
“Vacaville respects peaceful protests, but what happened Sunday night was unacceptable,” John Carli, the city’s chief of police, said in a statement. “This does not reflect who we are as a community.”
Carli told reporters at a press conference on Monday that the vandals caused around $30,000 worth of damage to city buildings and other infrastructure.
It wasn’t immediately clear what escalated tensions in Vacaville on Sunday, but it may have been linked to recent events in neighboring communities: Earlier in the week, a special prosecutor in Vallejo determined several officers who fatally shot a rap musician as he slept in the drive-thru of a restaurant two years ago were justified in their actions. Several days later, officers in Sacramento were involved in a fatal shooting involving a man his 20s, with the circumstances of that incident shrouded in secrecy.
Those types of incidents have re-ignited protests throughout the last several years. Vacaville police didn’t offer any insight into what they think might have been behind last night’s vandalism spree, but they continue to investigate the matter. So far, no one has been arrested.
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