"Once 8 p.m. (02:00 GMT on Sunday) hits, our message is very simple: Go home", Michael Hancock said at a Saturday news conference, as quoted by The Denver Post.
The curfew in the city and county of Denver will be in force on Saturday and Sunday, from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. local time (extending into Monday morning).
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has approved Hancock’s request to bring in the Colorado National Guard to support the city and the county of Denver over the weekend.
In Denver, protests have been going on for three days in a row. Police have used tear gas and rubber bullets as riots erupted in the city, where multiple acts of vandalism, arson, burglary, and criminal mischief have been committed.
"This is not acceptable in our city", Hancock told reporters on Saturday. According to Denver police, over a dozen people were arrested on Thursday, and at least 19 were arrested on Friday.
Protests have erupted across the United States this week after George Floyd, an African-American man, died in police custody on Monday after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. A video circulating online shows Derek Chauvin pinning unarmed Floyd to the ground with his knee and Floyd repeatedly telling the police officer that he cannot breathe until becoming unresponsive. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has announced that the state's National Guard would be fully mobilized amid the George Floyd protests. US President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that if the unrest continues in US cities, then the federal government will step in and the military will be used.