The officers arrested a reporter, Omar Jimenez, while he and his crew were talking about protests over the death of George Floyd.
A CNN team was arrested live on TV early Friday while covering the protests in Minneapolis, an exceptional interference of press freedom that angered advocates of the First Amendment and a quick apology from the Minnesota governor.
Police in Minneapolis released the CNN crew, led by reporter Omar Jimenez, after spending about an hour in custody. In the moments before five o'clock in the morning, Mr. Jiménez was quietly identifying himself as a reporter and offering to move wherever he and his team were directed.
Jimenez told police officers, who were equipped with riot equipment, while the network camera broadcasts the exchange in real time: "Bring us back where you want, we are getting away from you, just tell us." "Wherever you want us, we'll go."
Instead, he and his team - Bill Kirkus, producer, and Lionel Mendes, a camera operator - had their hands tied behind their backs.
The camera was placed on the ground, still rolling; CNN anchors watching from New York seemed shocked when they reported arrests of their colleagues.
It is common in autocratic states that journalists be arrested during protests and riots, but it is rare in the United States, where the First Amendment protects news gathering. Lawyers at CNN reached out to the Minnesota state authorities, and the network's president, Jeffrey A. Zucker, briefly on Friday morning with state governor, Tim Walz.
Mr. Valls apologized and told Mr. Zucker that the arrest was "unintended" and "unacceptable," according to CNN's version of the call. Around 6:30 am local time, the crew were released and returned to TV, to report protests and the unusual conditions of their detention.
"Everyone was very friendly," Jimenez said of his interaction with police officers after his arrest. "Regarding the people who were driving me away, there was no animosity there. They were not violent with me. We had a conversation about how crazy this week was for every part of the city."
Mr. Jiménez, who joined CNN in 2017, said he also asked an officer for guidance on where the news media was during the protests, which began in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer tied his hands and pressed him His knee on his neck.
Mr Jimenez said the officer told him: "Look, I don't know, man, I just follow orders."
The CNN crew's arrest drew criticism from prominent news groups and journalists.
"The arrest of journalists is what happens in dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. We live in a democratic country," Christian Amanpour, the main international broadcaster for CNN, wrote on Twitter. "This is what should have happened. Period," wrote Fox Bayer from Fox News. PEN America chief Susan Nossel described the measures as a "miserable scene".
A Minnesota state police spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
On Twitter, the Minnesota State Patrol said: "While clearing the streets and restoring order in Lake Street and Snelling Avenue, four members of the state patrol forces, including three CNN crew members, were arrested. The three were released upon confirmation that they were members of The media ".
This official statement was met with skepticism, partly because the footage shows Mr. Jiménez and his team clearly identifying themselves as journalists, while completing their press ID cards, before their arrest. In a morning call to network staff, Mr. Zucker, president of CNN, rejected the state's patrol description of the accident horribly.
Zucker told his staff during the call, which two people aware of his observations described: "Thank God" there was a camera recording the accident. Mr. Zucker went on to praise Mr Jimenez's "professionalism and poise", describing the arrests as "outrageous" and saying: "It is hard to be proud of what our team did this morning."