One woman dead, three others injured as car rams into crowd in U.S. Minneapolis

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Xinhua) -- A woman died and three people were injured when a car rammed into protesters in Minneapolis, U.S. state of Minnesota, where a Black man was fatally shot this month during an attempted arrest, Minneapolis police said Monday.

The Minneapolis Police Department said via Twitter that at 11:39 p.m. CT on Sunday, a car drove into a crowd of demonstrators in the Lake Street and Girard Avenue South area who were protesting the fatal police shooting of 32-year-old Winston Smith Jr. on June 3.

The crash resulted in one woman being killed and three others suffering non-life threatening injuries, police said. The suspect was pulled from the vehicle and struck by protesters before being taken into custody, police said, adding in a separate statement that "preliminary investigation indicates that the use of drugs or alcohol by the driver may be a contributing factor in this crash."

Minneapolis has been on edge since the death of George Floyd more than a year ago. The shooting to death of Black man Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on April 11 - when the trial of Floyd's murderer was ongoing -- by police further exacerbated tensions between the police and the public.