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Nekima Levy-Pounds Announces Intent To Run For Mayor

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Community activist Nekima Levy-Pounds will run for mayor of Minneapolis, she announced on social media Monday.

Levy-Pounds, the former president of the NAACP in Minneapolis, announced via her Facebook and Twitter pages Monday her intent to run for mayor during the next election cycle.

"Friends, You heard it here first," Levy-Pounds wrote. "I am running for Mayor of Minneapolis."

Levy-Pounds has been a key figure in the city's Black Lives Matter movement and an outspoken critic of police shootings such as the ones that killed Jamar Clark and Philando Castile.

She was elected president of the NAACP in Minneapolis in May 2015.

She will make an official announcement at a news conference at noon Tuesday across from the 4th Precinct police station.

Tuesday marks one year since Clark's death. Protesters occupied the 4th Precinct's police station following Clark's fatal shooting, which involved two officers from the precinct, Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. In March, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said evidence did not warrant charges against the officers. Last month, the Minneapolis Police Department said the officers would face no disciplinary action.

Levy-Pounds also taught at the University of St. Thomas law school for 13 years before leaving in July to pursue advocacy for racial and economic justice.

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