A press conference held by the Mayor of Minneapolis after the Police Chief's resignation has descended into chaos after protesters angrily interrupted to call for her to quit.

Mayor Betsy Hodges asked Chief Janee Harteau to step down from the position after one of her officers shot unarmed Australian woman Justine Damond while responding to a 911 call.

Loading

She said she had "lost confidence in the Chief's ability to lead us further", and was about to give a press conference when a group of protesters filed into the room, chanting and shouting and waving signs with the phrases "Messy Betsy" and "You are next" on them.

"I hear and understand your objections," she began, before being interrupted by activist John Thompson, who shouted the press conference was "ineffective".

Mr Thompson was wearing a cap with "Philando" written on it, in reference to 32-year-old Philando Castile who was fatally shot by a Minneapolis police officer last year.

"We don't want you as the Mayor of Minneapolis anymore! We ask that you take your staff with you! We don't want you to appoint anybody anymore," he said.

"Your leadership has been very ineffective, and if you don't remove yourself, we're going to put somebody in place to remove you!

"Your police department has terrorised us enough! You don't want to hear us, so hear me now — we do not want you as the Mayor of Minneapolis and we ask you to resign!"

Protesters in Minneapolis chanted "we shut this down" over the Mayor's press conference. ( ABC News: Conor Duffy )

Ms Hodges' attempts to speak — saying she was happy to sit down to "talk about the future of policing" — were ignored as the crowd chanted "bye-bye Betsy".

A supporter tried to intervene, before Ms Hodges gave up and left the room.

The protesters remained, speaking to the media and criticising the Mayor's choice of Medaria "Rondo" Arradondo as the new police chief.

Protesters chanted "power to the people" before the Mayor left the room. ( AP: Star Tribune/Aaron Lavinsky )

"It is the people's press conference," Mr Thompson shouted.

"We put you in office to represent us! Today is the start of a new north!"

"Who are we? Powerful people!" they chanted.

Ms Hodges later returned to resume her press conference after protesters made their way outside.

"I will not be resigning ... it is understandable to me that people's frustration is high, I share that frustration," she said.

"I will continue to say to the Australians, to you, what I've been saying all week, which is this is awful and heartbreaking, I send my condolences.

"Once we got information that the BCA [Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] gave out, given what I know from what the BCA released, this should not have happened and I send deep condolences to the entire country but mostly, I send them to her family and friends and loved ones."

Loading

ABC/AP