“I’m still in shock. It was just there yesterday.” said 31-year-old Minneapolis resident Josh Hanks as he battled tears while standing in front of the Lake Street Target store’s remains. “I have so many memories of the Home and Patio section. So many laughs. So many smiles. And now it’s gone forever.”
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For the Lake Street Target store, yesterday began like most other days. It sat there, on Lake Street, as people walked past it, just as it had for the first 19 years of its life. Some entered it to shop; others to work. It had no idea that, within hours, its automatic doors would open for the last time.
We’re still gathering information at the moment, but according to the Minneapolis Police Department, the first ransacking began at approximately 6:15 pm. This continued for hours until it was left with nothing but a mangled chair from a Disney’s Frozen kiddie kitchen set. “Let It Go,” indeed.
“It fought hard. It…fought hard,” said MPD chief Susan Schumer, during a press conference this morning. “And we will not rest until we find the animals who did this.”
White people nationwide took to the streets to protest this brutal act of terror. In Charlotte, N.C., police were called after a Target Lives Matter demonstration turned violent. Hundreds of whites gathered to perform what’s known in white activist circles as a “Buy-In,” where they congregated at a Target and then just bought things there. Fights broke out in the ensuing chaos, and when the police arrived, several of the officers joined the protest. “I needed some socks and some steak sauce,” said Charlotte patrolman John Livingstone. “Where else can you get both at once?”
Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Pittsburgh are among the cities where thousands showed up for candlelight vigils. White people hugged and cried and laughed as they wore t-shirts with bullseyes on them and shared their favorite Target store memories. In Boston, at a vigil that attracted 300,000 people—including each white member of the New England Patriots’ staff—a sign read “You Will Always Be The Target In The Center Of Our Hearts.” On Twitter this morning, President Trump vowed to “devote EVERY National resource To FIND These MONSTERS!”
Rachel Lisson, executive director of the National Center for Target Store Crimes, warns that the act was a result of long-building tensions, and we might see more Target Store murders soon. “It’s supposed to be a hot summer, and each Target Store has air conditioning. Our data shows that it is a volatile mixture.” Still, Lisson is confident we can prevent more Target store deaths. “If we act now, we could get ahead of this.”
Back in Minneapolis though, those words are of little comfort to the neighboring Auto Zone, which had grown close to the Target store. When pressed for comment, the Auto Zone declined to speak on camera—mostly likely because it is not a human being and it can’t talk.
