Police arrest 23 people and confiscate a backpack full of "Mortars"(photo attached).

Tuesday, June 2, about 300 demonstrators walked through St. Petersburg from 2 p.m. until close to midnight. During the walks the group took over major intersections and halted traffic for several minutes and police allowed them to continue because they were peaceful.

However later in the evening, police became aware that there were large incendiaries being set-off by some of the demonstrators as they were walking. This was a concern because there was no way to know what kind of devices they were setting-off.

For this reason, at 11:48 p.m., when the crowd returned to the front of Police Headquarters, police made a public announcement that this was an unlawful assembly and the crowd needed to leave the area for the safety of the people gathered and the police officers.

After two minutes, police launched smoke bombs. Several protesters threw large fireworks (mortars) back towards the building.

Police and deputies arrested a total of 23 people who refused to leave. One of the arrested had a backpack full of large fireworks. Photo Attached.

Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies assisted with this operation.