Large fight breaks out, police respond to political party’s Minneapolis city council campaign event

MINNEAPOLIS — A brawl broke out at a political party’s campaign event for Minneapolis City Council candidates Saturday, resulting in a call to police and injuries following the fight sparked by loud disagreements over nominations.

At least one person was transported to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and another was treated at the scene of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party’s endorsing convention for Minneapolis Ward 10, the Star Tribune reported.

Officers made no arrests at the Ella Baker Global Studies & Humanities Magnet School, Minneapolis police spokesman Brian Feintech told the Star Tribune.

Video posted on social media showed the disturbance begin after supporters of Minneapolis Council Member Aisha Chughtai took the stage, which caused an uproar among supporters of her challenger, Nasri Warsame.

Some Warsame supporters jumped on stage, shouting, banging on tables and waving signs, the Star Tribune reported.

Convention chair Sam Doten called the behavior embarrassing and adjourned the event without a nominee being chosen, saying it was no longer safe, the Star Tribune reported.

Chughtai said in a statement on her website that more than a dozen of her supporters and DFL volunteers were assaulted, claiming Warsame delegates “charged the stage assaulting me and my supporters as I was about to begin my convention speech.”

Warsame claimed in a Facebook post afterward that his campaign manager was assaulted by a staff member of the Chughtai campaign, the Star Tribune reported.

Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin said in a statement posted on Twitter Saturday evening that “the assaults and violence at the Ward 10 convention were perpetrated by supporters of Nasri Warsame.” Martin denounced the violence and apologized to Chughtai and her supporters and staff.

The Minnesota DFL is an affiliate of the national Democratic Party.