One of the things I feared might happen in the riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd was something we saw as an outgrowth of the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore – that was people assassinating police officers.

Unfortunately, that appears to have come to pass in Oakland.

Federal Protective Service officer who was protecting the U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, 53 year old Patrick Underwood was shot and killed during a Floyd protest that turned violent.

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1266965588678770688

From Fox News:

The shooting occurred on Friday after a vehicle pulled up outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building at about 9:45 p.m. and a person opened fire at two contract security officers who worked for Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service. Underwood was killed while the second officer was wounded and remains in critical condition. His identity has not yet been released.

“When someone targets a police officer or a police station with an intention to do harm and intimidate — that is an act of domestic terrorism,” Department of Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said at a Washington, D.C., news conference Saturday.

“There are currently threats by some to attack police stations and federal buildings,” Cuccinelli said.

It’s hard to call that anything other than an assassination and yet it’s gotten very little notice so far. President Donald Trump has now declared Antifa a terrorist organization.

Officers around the country are being attacked during the riots but this is the first murder that we know of associated with the riots. A woman was also arrested for attempted murder of 4 NYPD officers when she threw a lit Molotov cocktail in their police van and set it on fire. The van was destroyed but the officers managed to escape.

Underwood’s sister, Lancaster City Councilwoman Angela Underwood Jacobs said, “This violence must stop.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom made a statement, taking pains to say people shouldn’t try to connect the event to the protests.

“This is a moment of pain for our state and nation. We are also mourning the tragic loss of a federal security officer and wounding of another in Oakland. Jennifer and I send our sincere condolences to their families, friends and colleagues. No one should rush to conflate this heinous act with the protests last night. A federal investigation is underway, and we should let that process play out.”

So please, Gavin, enlighten us as to why this happened? Authorities need to absolutely condemn the riots and condemn the violence against the police, the citizens and the community, not talk about the “sadness” of the rioters and justify rioting or any violence.