About midnight on May 27, security officer Ken Reese Jr. heard a plate-glass window shatter on the E. Lake Street side of the Allina Commons-Midtown Global Market complex, east of Chicago Avenue.
Reese, monitoring cameras at the security desk, told a Securitas colleague to stay put as he ran toward the sound of looters streaming through the broken glass to nab bicycles that had been collected by a youth-nonprofit tenant for low-income neighborhood kids. Beyond that were food and merchandise shops owned by 50 small businesses.
“The first looters through the window were surprised,” recalled Reese. “I started yelling. There was six of them inside. They backed out.