A third night of street protests over the police shooting of a Black man erupted into gun violence late Tuesday and early Wednesday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two people and wounding one, police said.
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Social media videos showed people screaming amid close-up images of gunshot wounds after a night of skirmishes, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets, had appeared to ease.
Crowds chased a man running down the street with a rifle after they believed he had shot another man. One pursuer took a flying kick at him after he fell to the ground, and another tried to grab his weapon. He appeared to be shot at close range and fell to the ground.
The shooting that broke out shortly before midnight killed two people and wounded a third who was expected to survive, the Kenosha Police Department said in a statement.
The city of Kenosha has been rocked by protests since Sunday, when police shot Black American Jacob Blake in the back at close range as he walked away from two officers and opened his car door, according to a bystander video that went viral. Three of his young sons were in the car, witnesses said.
Blake, 29, was hit by four of the seven shots fired and left paralysed and "fighting for his life", his family and lawyers said on Tuesday, hours before the latest round of civil unrest broke out in the lakefront city between Milwaukee and Chicago.
Anti-racism protesters also clashed with police in Portland, Oregon, and Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday night, part of a wave of national Black Lives Matter protests that have continued since the May 25 death of a Black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, who was pinned to the street under the knee of a White police officer.
Police arrested more than 60 people in a protest march in Louisville, Kentucky organised for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed in March by police officers who burst into her apartment.
'Like a vigilante group
The Kenosha protests have drawn self-styled militias, patrolling the streets with rifles. Usually White men, they have weapons slung over their shoulders or at the ready while standing guard outside businesses to protect them from looters or arsonists.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth told the New York Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that one person was shot dead and two were wounded.
"They're like a vigilante group," Beth told the Journal Sentinel, though he said he was unsure if the man at the centre of the outburst was linked to such a group.
Beth predicted the main suspect would be caught, telling the newspaper: "I feel very confident we'll have him in a very short time.”
Videos showed the suspect running with his rifle and others giving chase, believing he had already shot someone.
The gunman warded off his pursuers by firing at them at close range and the crowd dispersed. Other shots were heard in the background.
'My son matters'
One of the Blake family's attorneys said on Tuesday it would “take a miracle” for Jacob Blake to walk again, while calling for the officer who opened fire to be arrested and others involved to lose their jobs.
“But my son matters. Hes a human being and he matters,” said Blakes father, who is also named Jacob Blake.
Blake was in surgery Tuesday, said attorney Ben Crump, adding that the bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered his vertebrae. Another attorney said there was also severe damage to organs.
“Its going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again,” said Crump.
The legal team plans to file a civil lawsuit against the police department over the shooting. Police have said little about what happened, other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute. The officers involved have not been named. The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating.
Police fired tear gas for a third night Tuesday to disperse protesters who had gathered outside Kenosha's courthouse, where some shook a protective fence and threw water bottles and fireworks at officers lined up behind it. Police then used armoured vehicles and officers with shields pushed back the crowd when protesters ignored warnings to leave a nearby park.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers had called for calm Tuesday, while also declaring a state of emergency under which he doubled the National Guard deployment in Kenosha from 125 to 250. The night before crowds destroyed dozens of buildings and set more than 30 fires in the city's downtown.
“We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue,” said Evers, who is facing mounting pressure from Republicans over his handling of the unrest. “We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction.”
'Very unpleased'
Blakes mother, Julia Jackson, said the damage in Kenosha does not reflect what her family wants and that, if her son could see it, he would be “very unpleased”.
She said the first thing her son said to her when she saw him was he was sorry.
"He said, I dont want to be a burden on you guys'," Jackson said. “'I want to be with my children, and I dont think Ill walk again.”
Three of the younger Blake's sons – aged 3, 5 and 8 – were in the car at the time of the shooting, Crump said. It was the 8-year-old's birthday, he added.
The man who said he made the cellphone video of the shooting, 22-year-old Raysean White, said he saw Blake scufRead More – Source
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