People participating in a “Resist Police Terror” march walked from St. Paul’s Grand Avenue to the mayor’s home on the West Side on Sunday night, on what would have been Philando Castile’s 34th birthday.

Police made no arrests as marchers blocked traffic or in two incidents that officers were called about — a passerby said he was assaulted and his tires were flattened, and a St. Paul restaurant manager reported protesters threatened staff and customers, according to police.

A coalition of groups said the goal of the march was “to bring attention to the racist policies and conduct of the police who shot and killed Philando Castile, and the complicit court system that never brings justice to victims of police brutality,” according to a news release. The march also came as people reacted to a Minneapolis officer fatally shooting a 40-year-old woman who reportedly called police Saturday night.

Just over 100 people took part in the march that began at Grand Avenue and Dale Street, said Sam Sanchez, an organizer with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar. Jamar Clark was killed in a police shooting in Minneapolis in 2015.

Though Castile was killed by a St. Anthony police officer in Falcon Heights, the group said it went to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s home because St. Paul police have had the most fatal officer-involved shootings in the state.

BRINGING ANGER TO MAYOR’S HOUSE

The marchers arrived at Coleman’s house about 10 p.m. Sunday. Sanchez said he did not know if Coleman was home and a spokesman for the mayor, Ben Petok, declined to comment about whether he was.

Outside Coleman’s house, people shouted, “The deadliest police department!” honked car horns and chanted, “If we don’t get no justice, they don’t get no sleep,” video of the protest showed.

An aunt of Marcus Golden, who was fatally shot by St. Paul police in 2015, addressed the group.

“What the police stand for is not the propaganda that they put out there,” said Monique Cullars-Doty on the video. “They say, ‘We’re here to protect and serve.’ They say, ‘We’re here to build community,’ but that is not the case. So, I’m glad that we’re out here because Mayor Coleman needs to be held accountable for his lack of action.”

Petok pointed to, among other things, the racial equity training that Coleman has required all St. Paul employees to attend, including police officers.

“The mayor thinks the police department has gone to extraordinary lengths to train their officers, to complete racial equity training and to implement recommendations of President (Barack) Obama’s report on 21st Century Policing,” Petok said Monday. “In many ways, they are the most transparent police department in the country.”

Organizers also selected Coleman’s house as their destination to bring their anger to the mayor about felony charges filed by the Ramsey County attorney’s office against a cousin of Castile, Sanchez said. Louis Hunter was charged in the Interstate 94 shutdown in St. Paul last summer, days after Castile was killed.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office, citing a conflict of interest, said they asked Carver County prosecutors to handle the case after they learned Hunter was related to Castile.

POLICE INVESTIGATING REPORTS

Sanchez said he wasn’t aware of problems during the march, but police said they took a couple of reports.

As the group passed the Wild Onion at Grand Avenue and Avon Street, six or seven protesters went in the restaurant and were yelling about 8:45 p.m., according to Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman. Two threatened to come back and assault staff and customers after the restaurant closed, saying everyone inside needed to “watch out,” a manager reported to police.

The group continued on and crossed the Smith Avenue High Bridge. Police were dispatched about 9:35 p.m. to a report of a man who had been assaulted by a group of people participating in a protest, according to Linders. Related Articles St. Paul PD highlights surveillance photos of looting suspects, seeks tips

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A 54-year-old Falcon Heights motorist on the bridge said he saw a large group of people in the road, slowed down and a man stepped in front of his car, Linders said. The man put his foot in front of the tire, saying it would be crushed if the motorist went any farther.

The man did something to flatten the tire and punched the motorist through the open driver’s-side window, according to police. Another man spit on the motorist and may have punched him in the head. In total, the man said there was a “barrage” of punches and he was hit about five times, Linders said.

When the man got out of the car, he discovered two more tires had been flattened.

Police said they are investigating both cases.