The Night Four Officers Walked Out on the Minnesota Lynx

On a warm July evening in 2016, Target Center prepared for another WNBA showdown — but the real story unfolded long before tipoff. As fans gathered, four off-duty Minneapolis police officers working security suddenly made a decision that would spark national debate: they walked off the job.

The reason sat plainly on the players’ chests.

The Minnesota Lynx stepped onto the court wearing black shirts printed with the names Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two Black men killed by police that same week. On the back, the team honored the five officers murdered in Dallas with a printed badge and the words “Black Lives Matter.”

To the players, the shirts were not a provocation — they were a plea.
“We have decided it is important to raise our voices,” Rebekkah Brunson told reporters as she recalled her childhood encounter with police officers who aimed guns at her family. “Racial profiling is a problem. Senseless violence is a problem.”

But the officers assigned to work the game disagreed. According to the Minneapolis Police Federation, they demanded the team remove the shirts. When the Lynx declined, the officers left. Federation president Lt. Bob Kroll dismissed the team’s gesture as “anti-police” and insisted the players were pushing a “false narrative.”

City leaders quickly pushed back. Police Chief Janee’ Harteau condemned the walkout, stressing that anyone wearing the uniform must honor public expectations. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges went even further, calling Kroll’s comments “jackass remarks.”

What began as a quiet moment of mourning from the players became a flashpoint in the national conversation — a reminder of how deeply fraught, emotional, and urgent the call for justice had become.