Looters trash Soho: Smashed windows at Gucci, Chanel and Bloomingdales in NYC

Soho in New York City was ravaged by looters on Sunday night who smashed the windows of luxury stores like Gucci, Chanel and Bloomingdales to steal goods in a wild night of riots that saw more than 250 arrests, cops being injured and one man being shot. 

It remains unclear if those who smashed up the stores were part of protests against George Floyd’s death, or if they belonged to different groups and were merely taking advantage of the chaos unfolding across the country. 

Across New York City on Sunday night, more than 250 people were arrested. Six cops were injured, none seriously, and a man in his twenties was shot in the abdomen after an argument with a different group of young men. 

The man was shot at 12.30am at the corner of Crosby Street and Spring Street, a stone’s throw from the stores that were ransacked. He is in the hospital in a stable condition.  

NYPD cops in riot gear patrolled the streets and helicopters hovered above the neighborhood – known for its trendy restaurants, luxury clothing stores and expensive apartments – throughout the night. 

Similar scenes played out in cities across the country in a sixth night of riots and protests over Floyd’s death. The unarmed 46-year-old black man died on Monday in Minneapolis after cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. 

Chauvin has now been charged with his murder but three other cops involved are yet to face charges. 

His death has sparked a national conversation about racism and police brutality amid a backdrop of a country that had already been shaken by economic uncertainty and public health fears caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

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The looting in Soho happened on Sunday night as; 

• President Trump was whisked to a bunker while protesters descended on the White House, throwing Molotov cocktails and injuring 50 Secret Service agents 
• A protester was reportedly shot dead in Louisville, Kentucky 
• Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter was arrested at a protest in New York City 
• An armed vigilante in California pulled a gun on rioters who tried to hold up a bank 
• Across the country, peaceful protesters tried to stop violent opportunists from ransacking stores 
• In Louisville, protesters formed a human chain to protect one cop who became separated from his unit and outnumbered by crowds 
• Other cops dropped to their knees in shows of solidarity with protesters and some abandoned riot gear to march with crowds peacefully 
• In Minneapolis, a tanker plowed through crowds of protesters on a highway; he was then pulled from the rig and beaten by crowds 

On Sunday night, President Trump was whisked to a bunker as protesters descended on the White House. More than 50 Secret Service agents were injured in the clashes.

In New York City, the looters reportedly distributed goods to each other after smashing stores before police arrived. 

Dozens were arrested on Sunday night and more were still being taken into custody on Monday morning.  

Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Today that the entire weekend was ‘incredibly challenging’ for cops. 

‘Ninety percent of yesterday went very well. Five or six thousand protesters throughout New York City, less violence as the days before. The majority of the protesters were peaceful making their point.

‘When it got dark it got ugly and it got ugly quick. We had some violence, we had another incident of an individual with a Molotov cocktail in Brooklyn.

‘We had an individual, two officers in a marked car in Queens, a bullet hit that car. That’s clearly alarming to us. The looting. The looting turned very quickly in portions of the city, in Brooklyn, and primarily in Manhattan

‘There were hundreds and hundreds of arrests in a very short time in that area and some are still going on.

‘It was a very challenging time for police officers,’ he said.   

An NYPD spokesman told DailyMail.com on Monday morning it was unclear whether the looters had come from out of the city or if they were planned groups who had nothing to do with the Floyd protests but were merely taking advantage of the escalating chaos. 

The New York Post cites witnesses who say they had a system whereby one group would enter the store and grab the goods then flee on scooters and bikes.

‘The looters have been going systemically from store to store. They had people go in, grab the [items]. Then had people on Revel [scooters] take off. It was hundreds of people,’ they said.

This week hundreds of protests have unfolded in at least 145 cities across the country as people gather in outrage over the horrifying death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed while in the custody of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day.

The demonstrations have marked unparalleled civil unrest in the US that hasn’t been seen since the 1968 assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump spent Sunday berating his enemies on Twitter and demanding ‘law and order’ in Democratic-run cities, but did not appear in public and opted against making a televised address to calm tensions.

He has been abhorred for his early response to the riots. 

When tensions first flared in Minneapolis, he tweeted: ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Twitter censored his post. 

The National Guard has now been deployed in more than 20 states and there are growing fears that the protests and riots will continue.