A protest shut down lanes on Snelling Avenue on Saturday afternoon, disrupting traffic to the Minnesota State Fair.

Hosted by Black St. Paul and Black Lives Matter Minnesota, the protest started with a peaceful rally in Hamline Park that grew angrier as the group of about 50 people marched north about two miles to the Snelling Avenue entrance to the State Fairgrounds. Many said they were there to support the families of those who have been killed by police and to call for change in the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments.

The event’s Facebook page was titled “Ketamine and K-9s and Killer Cops, Oh My! Protest!”

“We are going to continue to disrupt traffic until we get justice,” organizer Trahern Crews yelled into a microphone as the group made a wide circle, preventing cars from moving in either direction in front of the Fairgrounds entrance.

Protesters began marching north on Snelling Avenue at about 1:30 p.m., escorted by police officers. Police drove in front and behind the group. Other squads blocked entrance ramps and officers on bicycles blocked cross streets.

The group was outside the main gates of the Fair at about 2 p.m., where they remained for about 30 minutes until returning to Hamline Park via the southbound lanes of Snelling Avenue.

“Why are they taking our young people’s lives?” asked Joann Gonzalez of Minneapolis. “They’re just murdering them. They need to redo their police force.”

The group held up signs in the shapes of tombstones, each with a name of a person who died in an altercation with police such as Philando Castile, Jaffort Smith, William Hughes and Thurman Blevins.

“He shouldn’t have been killed,” said Talvin Rohr, of St. Paul about his friend, Blevins. “Those police officers are guilty.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman did not file charges against the two Minneapolis police officers who fatally shot Blevins following the release of police body-camera footage, which appears to show Blevins held a gun as he was shot by Minneapolis officers on June 23 in North Minneapolis.

The group also protested police-directed use of ketamine, a powerful sedative, as a way to control combative people, and called for better control of police dogs, referring to an incident in Dec. 2017, where a bystander was attacked by a St. Paul police dog.

“We need change,” said Kay Smith, wife of Jaffort Smith who was killed by police after shooting a woman and firing at police in 2016. “There are a lot of people with mental health issues. They need love. They don’t need bullets.”

A grand jury cleared four St. Paul officers of fatally shooting Jaffort Smith. Smith shot Beverly “Angel” Flowers, who said she’d been spending a lot of time with Smith before he was killed, in the right side of her cheek, and the bullet exploded out her left eye. Smith had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had not been taking medication for it at the time of his death, Flowers said.

Not everyone approved of the group’s method of protest.

George Niece, who lives three blocks from the Fairgrounds, said blocking traffic was unnecessary.

“I love human beings, no matter what color, race or religion they are,” he said. “I just think this is a circus. This is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money,” he said referring to the police presence needed for the protest.

At about 3:15 p.m. the march had ended and all lanes were open to traffic, police said.