By Kevin Deutsch and Sasha Gonzales
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The mass unrest roiling cities across America reached the Bronx early Tuesday, with demonstrations over George Floyd’s killing by police turning violent and looters laying waste to stores during a destructive, hours-long spree, authorities said.
Amid violent clashes with police, looters damaged local pharmacies, delis, beauty supply stores, pawn shops, and other businesses on Fordham Road, the Grand Concourse, and Burnside Avenue, busting out storefront windows and making off with stolen property, according to the NYPD.
Multiple fires were set in borough roadways, their flames burning well into the early morning hours as police struggled to contain unrest across New York City.
Along the storied Grand Concourse, discarded goods and charred debris lay scattered across the blocks around Yankee Stadium, where looters targeted local, long-standing businesses.
An NYPD sergeant was seriously injured amid the unrest when a car crashed into him in an incident captured on video.
Civil unrest has rocked Manhattan, Brooklyn, and now the Bronx in response to the killing of Floyd—a Minnesota man killed by a policeman who kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, even as he told cops “I can’t breathe,” video of the killing shows.
The nation has not experienced civil disorder on this scale since the 1968 assassination of civil rights legend Martin Luther King, Jr., by a white supremacist in Memphis.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.