Minnesota prosecutor charges 4 in connection to gunfire near Black Lives Matter protest

Four men were charged Monday in connection to the Nov. 23 gunfire near a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis that injured five, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a news conference. Demonstrators have been camped outside a police station protesting the fatal police shooting of Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old black man.

"These four individuals violently impacted people's rights to demonstrate," Freeman said. "We will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law."

Lawrence Scarsella was charged with five counts of second-degree assault and one count of second-degree riot, Freeman said. Joseph Martin Backman, Nathan Wayne Gustavsson, and Daniel Thomas Macey were all charged with one count of second-degree riot, The Washington Post reports.

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The four men charged are due in court Tuesday, with Freeman's office asking for Scarsella's bail to be set at $500,000, and the others' at $250,000 each.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, Freeman said, and it's possible that federal authorities will add charges. Earlier Monday, the Minneapolis mayor, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), and the Minneapolis Urban League all urged protesters to stop congregating near the police station.