Washington D.C. Riots

Date: May 5, 1991 • Location: Shaw, United States

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1991.

Riots broke out in Washington, D.C., after a rookie police officer shot a Salvadoran man in the chest.

The 1991 Washington, D.C., riot, sometimes referred to as the Mount Pleasant riot or Mount Pleasant Disturbance, occurred in May 1991, when rioting broke out in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in response to an African-American female police officer having shot a Salvadoran man in the chest following a Cinco de Mayo celebration.