The Twitter post featuring the photo that went viral — over 13,000 retweets and counting — said the church was harboring people “hurt by police violence” during an April 12 protest over the police killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop the previous day.
“This was how the cops responded,” Mischa Coldwater wrote.
Except the troopers weren’t guarding the church, they were guarding the police station next door — although it isn’t pictured in the photo.
Maj. Melanie Nelson, spokeswoman for Operation Safety Net, said the State Patrol troopers in the photo were staged there to respond to any potential unrest.