Business Owners Fear Repeat Of Unrest Destruction During Derek Chauvin Trial: 'We Just Have To Deal With Whatever Comes'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A few miles away from where the Derek Chauvin trial is underway, "uncertainty" keeps some north Minneapolis business owners awake at night.
There are worries about the outcome of the trial, what it will mean for the community, and what it will mean for themselves and their neighbors.
These are questions weighing on the team at Wendy's House of Soul, including Heather Warfield. As the trial presses forward, pressing decisions are going to be made at the Glenwood Avenue restaurant.
"We've talked about whether or not to board up … It is a nightly, daily thing we have to worry about," Warfield said. "My fear is that things are going to be destroyed again, and that we won't be able to recover."
Warfield is the chief financial officer for the restaurant, which was started in 2014 by her sister, Wendy Puckett.
"This is her passion," Warfield said. "She loves being here, loves coming in here."
For almost three years, the business was located off Broadway Avenue, not far from the unrest following George Floyd's death.
"Our entire block was fine … Each block to the side of us and in the front of us was horrible," she said. "To watch, you know, our neighbors go through this, and some of them have not been able to, you know, come back from it, to see these people that have had businesses 20, 30 years and they can't come back now, so it's tough."
And Warfield says there's something tougher than this.
"Someone sent me the video [of Floyd's deadly encounter with police]. That was not something I was prepared for, so I would say that's what upsets me the most," Warfield said.
She says the hope for her community is that peace and safety reign.
"Just hoping that justice is served and people take the results and we just have to deal with it either way," Warfield said. "We just have to deal with whatever comes."
