MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly 100 medical students at the University of Minnesota have staged a “die-in” to protest the killings of black men by white police officers.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports the students, many in their white lab coats, lay on the second floor of the school’s Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower for about five minutes Wednesday. The protest drew confused looks from passers-by.

The students protested grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York. They also hoped to draw attention to racial health disparities that they say contribute to violence against communities of color.

Minnesota consistently ranks as one of the healthiest states in the nation. But racial gaps in health persist, according to the state Health Department.