Rioting in Lancaster, PA, in the wake of the fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding man has led to the arrest of 12 adults and one minor, nine of whom are being held at Lancaster County Jail on $1 million bail each.
The arrests happened during a riot around 3 a.m. Monday that saw demonstrators marching from the scene of the shooting to the police station while throwing glass bottles, rocks, bricks, gallon jugs filled with liquid and plastic road barricades at police, authorities said. A county vehicle was also damaged.
An officer fatally shot 27-year-old Ricardo Munoz on Sunday afternoon while responding to a call that Munoz, who suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was becoming aggressive with his mother and was attempting to break into her house, the Lancaster City Bureau of Police said.
The involved officer's body camera video shows Munoz wielding a large knife and charging at the officer.
Twelve adults arrested in the rioting face a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges, including arson, riot, institutional vandalism and criminal conspiracy. One defendant, 23-year-old Yoshua Dwayne Montague also faces a charge of illegal possession of a firearm, National Review reports.
Lancaster Stands Up, a social justice advocacy group, slammed the judge for assigning the high bail. “The absurdly high bail amounts indicate that what we’re seeing is not a measured pursuit of justice, but a politically motivated attack on the movement for police reform and accountability,” the group said in a tweet.
