Philadelphia Target Temporarily Closes Amid George Floyd Protests

Protests have erupted around the country over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.  A week ago crowds started gathering to express the outrage of the manner in which Floyd was killed. While a lot of the protests started out peaceful, anger and frustration started to boil resulting in stand offs between protesters and police. Buildings have been burned to the ground, stores were broken into and looting and riots began to unfold.

A Target in Minneapolis was of the first retails stores to be looted. On the very first night of protests there were videos of the store completely vandalized with almost nothing left inside. As the week went on, other Targets across the country became targets including one in the Atlanta Georgia area. Recently Brian Cornel, the CEO of Target, released a statement.

"We are a community in pain. That pain is not unique to the Twin Cities—it extends across America," Cornell said. "As a Target team, we've huddled, we've consoled, we've witnessed horrific scenes similar to what's playing out now and wept that not enough is changing. And as a team we've vowed to face pain with purpose."

On Sunday Target released another statement saying they would be closing more than 100 stores across the country in light of everything going on. According to CNN, they later came back and said that instead they would start with closing just six stores until further notice.

"The safety of our team and guests is our top priority," Target said. "We recognize the important role we play in helping our communities shop for the food, medicine and other essentials they need. We apologize for the inconvenience and will reopen our stores on their normally scheduled hours as soon as it is safe to do so."

The Target in Washington Square W Philadelphia, PA is one of the six to be closed. Over the weekend Philadelphia experienced protests and riots unlike ever before.