Minneapolis police precinct fire: 4th man sentenced to federal prison, $12M restitution in George Floyd riot

The fourth and final man charged with helping to burn down a Minneapolis police precinct during the civil unrest last summer over the death of George Floyd has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $12 million in restitution. 

After he spends the two years and three months behind bars, Bryce Michael Williams, 27, of Staples, Minnesota, will serve another two years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota announced Monday. 

Williams pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit arson in November.  

Court documents allege that Williams went to the Third Precinct where a crowd of hundreds had gathered on the night of May 28, 2020. The crowd began shouting, "Burn it down, burn it down." A fence that was designed to keep trespassers out of the building was torn down. 

Williams and others then breached the fence and entered the Third Precinct. 

Surveillance video footage showed Williams standing near the entrance of the building holding a Molotov cocktail while another "co-conspirator" identified as 25-year-old Davon De-Andre Turner lit the wick. Turner took the Molotov cocktail into the building where it was used to start a fire, prosecutors said. Williams later threw a box on an existing fire located just outside the Third Precinct entrance, prosecutors said. 

"All four defendants charged in federal court have now been sentenced for their individual roles in the burning and near total destruction of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct building," Acting U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk said. "Mr. Williams and his co-defendants have been held accountable for their dangerous and destructive actions. I thank our federal, state, and local partners who pursued justice in these cases."

In court Monday, Judge Patrick Schiltz described Williams as a "good person who made a terrible mistake," in giving him a prison term lower than recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. But the judge also asserted that Williams was a leader, "not a follower," when a violent crowd stormed the police precinct last May, and therefore shot down his probation request. 

Williams posted videos of himself and others during the riot to his TikTok account, which has since garnered more than 150,000 followers.