Santa Rosa police arrest 27 people after ordering demonstrators to disperse

Police arrested 27 people in Santa Rosa on Monday night after hours of demonstrations in response to the death of an unarmed black man in police custody in Minneapolis last week.

Santa Rosa police said Monday’s demonstrations began around midday on Old Courthouse Square and included marching throughout downtown and elsewhere in the city. The actions came a week after the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

At about 5:15 p.m., a group of the protesters went onto northbound U.S. Highway 101 south of Steele Lane, and California Highway Patrol officers arrested several people who refused to leave the highway while the rest of the group marched back to the Old Courthouse Square, police said.

Protesters who were still at the square by later in the evening were “more confrontational with law enforcement and passing vehicles,” police said, and many stayed out past the 8 p.m. curfew the city had instituted to stem the looting and vandalism that has been seen around the Bay Area related to the demonstrations.

By 9 p.m., the group threatened to go back onto northbound Highway 101 and went along various streets, with some protesters throwing bottles at officers, before they ended up back at Old Courthouse Square around 10 p.m., police said.

People began scattering throughout downtown, with some throwing rocks and breaking windows of businesses along College Avenue and others throwing rocks and bottles at officers and patrol vehicles, according to police.

At 10:53 p.m., Santa Rosa police gave dispersal orders and people who did not comply were taken into custody. Of the 27 arrested, 17 were adults and 10 were juveniles. One was from Petaluma and all other 26 were Santa Rosa residents, police said.

Francisco Javier Orozco, 30, of Santa Rosa, was arrested for allegedly shooting business windows with a pellet gun. No one was injured in the shooting.