Two dead as protests over police shooting of Jacob Blake escalate
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Kenosha — A third night of street protests over the police shooting of a black man erupted into gun violence late on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two people and wounding one, police said.
Social media videos showed chaotic scenes of people running and screaming amid a volley of gunfire and others tending to gunshot wounds. The bloodshed followed a night of skirmishes that had appeared to turn calm after police fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters who defied a curfew.
The shooting broke out shortly before midnight, killing two people and wounding a third who is expected to survive, the Kenosha police department said in a statement.
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. Another man tried to grab his weapon and appeared to be shot at close range, falling to the ground.
Kenosha has been rocked by protests since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake (29) several times in the back at close range. Blake is on video walking away from police and around his car to the driver’s side, where he was shot getting in, with at least one police officer pulling his shirt from behind. Three of his young sons were in the car.
Blake 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 town 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 protests that have continued since the death of George Floyd in May.
The Kenosha protests have drawn self-styled militias, patrolling the streets with rifles or standing guard outside businesses.
‘Like a vigilante group’
“They’re like a vigilante group,” Kenosha County sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee 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.” Kenosha police, a separate agency from the sheriff’s office, asked for witnesses to come forward.
Devin ...
Social media videos showed chaotic scenes of people running and screaming amid a volley of gunfire and others tending to gunshot wounds. The bloodshed followed a night of skirmishes that had appeared to turn calm after police fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters who defied a curfew.
The shooting broke out shortly before midnight, killing two people and wounding a third who is expected to survive, the Kenosha police department said in a statement.
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. Another man tried to grab his weapon and appeared to be shot at close range, falling to the ground.
Kenosha has been rocked by protests since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake (29) several times in the back at close range. Blake is on video walking away from police and around his car to the driver’s side, where he was shot getting in, with at least one police officer pulling his shirt from behind. Three of his young sons were in the car.
Blake 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 town 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 protests that have continued since the death of George Floyd in May.
The Kenosha protests have drawn self-styled militias, patrolling the streets with rifles or standing guard outside businesses.
‘Like a vigilante group’
“They’re like a vigilante group,” Kenosha County sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee 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.” Kenosha police, a separate agency from the sheriff’s office, asked for witnesses to come forward.
Devin ...
