MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Ten adults and three juveniles were arrested in New Hampshire’s largest city after a crowd gathered and some people set off fireworks and threw bottles and other items at police vehicles, hours after a peaceful vigil was held in memory of George Floyd, authorities said.
Manchester police shut down off-ramps in both directions from Interstate 293 at South Willow Street as they worked to control at least 50 people late Tuesday into early Wednesday.
Police said most of the arrests were for disorderly conduct and riot; one man was charged with arson.
Earlier Tuesday, police said hundreds of people came to Stark Park for a candlelight vigil in memory of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
Prosecutors said a Facebook post encouraging people to riot in Manchester was partly to blame for what happened later. Daniel Zeron, 19, is charged with criminal threatening and faced a bail hearing Wednesday.
But Zeron’s lawyer, Jillian Rizzo, said prosecutors were making “quite a spectacular leap … to say that a post that said that four people were attending, that was up for less than 24 hours, shared by 25 people, liked by 27, is somehow the epicenter of everything that went on,” WMUR-TV reported.
Zeron awaits a judge’s decision.
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