Black Lives Matter protesters silently walk out the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota December 23, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

While police and mall security dispersed that gathering, protesters also went to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport where they briefly shut down roadways to both terminals, leading to eight arrests, an airport spokesman said.

Security checkpoints were shut down briefly in Terminal 2 to prevent protesters from moving into secure areas of the airport, the second busiest in the Midwest after Chicago's O'Hare.

Meanwhile, California Highway Patrol said it arrested nine female protesters blocking southbound traffic on the 101 freeway near the San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday.

Images of the demonstrators uploaded to social media showed them holding a sign demanding justice for Mario Woods, a black man suspected of a San Francisco stabbing, who police shot dead.

Earlier, hundreds of people had gathered at the Minnesota mall, one of the largest in North America, where organizers for Black Lives Matter had promised to assemble despite a judge's warning that its owners could legally block the protest.

Police and mall security quickly moved in, warning that any who did not leave would be arrested for violating mall policy against demonstrations and alerting shoppers that that area of the mall was on lockdown. Some stores closed for about an hour.

Just before last Christmas, more than 1,500 Black Lives Matter protesters shut down part of the same mall as they demonstrated against grand jury decisions not to charge police officers in the killings in Ferguson and New York.

The night before this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York, members of the group marched through Macy's Herald Square flagship store to show solidarity with the Minneapolis chapter.