CNN reporter confronted In Minneapolis suburb: ‘I’m not going anywhere’

CNN reporter Sara Sidner on Monday was confronted by a demonstrator during protests in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center following the shooting of a Black man by police there over the weekend.

“Y’all be twisting up the stories and shit,” a man walked up and said to Sidner during a live report from Brooklyn Center just after 8:40 p.m. local time. “All the press and all the extra shit y’all do makes this worse.”

Sidner told the man, who had his back turned to fireworks going off just yards away during the demonstrations, “I want you to be careful … of anything that might hit you.” 

The man told her he was not scared and gestured to Sidner’s camera crew and told her, “Y’all need to get up outta here with twisting up the media and shit.” 

Sidner responded by saying, “You don’t know me, but we’re gonna get to know each other.” She then attempted again to interview him live on the air. 

“Y’all just gonna edit out the shit,” he said, to which Sidner explained to the man, “We’re live.” 

Sidner walked closer to the demonstration with her camera crew after the man encouraged her to do so, saying that the media was “doing all the extra shit for the backhand shit and making people look all crazier than what the f— they are.”

This was quite a moment on CNN. pic.twitter.com/hmszW6h1UF

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) April 13, 2021

The live moment was widely circulated on social media on Monday night, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone. 

Sidner acknowledged the confrontation in a tweet less than an hour later.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “I love Minneapolis, it’s surrounding suburbs including #BrooklynCenter, and it’s people. I get that people are mad. It’s normal. I take no offense. Emotions are understandably high after the killing of #DanteWright.”

Daunte Wright, a Black man, was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop on Sunday.

Body camera footage of the killing was released by local police on Monday, and the police chief said the officer who fired the shot that killed Wright meant to fire a Taser at him instead of a gun. 

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled Wright’s death was a homicide. Minnesota State Patrol Col. Matt Langer said that 40 people were arrested during the unrest after the city imposed a 7 p.m. curfew on Monday.