The Albuquerque mayor said late Sunday that a more than 10-hour protest over recent police shootings has turned from peaceful into "mayhem," as officers in riot gear clashed with protesters who blocked traffic, tried to get on freeways and shouted anti-police slogans, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
One officer was injured, rocks were thrown and at one point protesters trapped police in a vehicle and tried to break the windows, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Protesters took to the streets in the early afternoon and stayed out late Sunday after authorities declared an unlawful assembly, according to the Albuquerque Journal. People are angry over Albuquerque police's involvement in 37 shootings, 23 of them fatal, in a city of about 555,000 since 2010.
The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating the department for more than a year, looking into complaints of civil rights violations and allegations of excessive use of force, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
The protest came days after a YouTube video emerged threatening retaliation for a recent deadly police shooting backed by anonymous, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The video, which bore the logo of the computer hacking collective Anonymous, warned of a cyberattack on city websites and called for the protest march, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Albuquerque police said their site had been breached early Sunday afternoon, but it was visible late in the afternoon after being offline for hours.
Earlier Sunday, police spokesman Simon Drobik confirmed the disruption was due to a cyberattack and said investigators had not uncovered the source of the hack, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
In the shooting on March 16 that led to the YouTube posting Tuesday, a homeless man was killed in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains on the east side of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The shooting was captured on video and followed a long standoff.
