While an uneasy calm had returned to the affected neighborhood, he said that the city still faced “a very volatile situation”. Police moved in to try to disperse the crowd and warned of arrests.
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Individuals attending the rally fired dozens of shots, apparently in the air, authorities said.
Aiming to reassure the community that the police had acted properly, Chief Edward Flynn said the officer’s body camera footage show Smith had turned toward him with a gun in his hand after a traffic stop.
“That still photo demonstrates, without question, that he had a gun in his hand”.
“I want our community to know that he had a gun in his hand”.
He was a 23-year-old man who police say ran from police during a traffic stop Saturday afternoon. However, near 1 a.m., WTMJ anchors said a auto had been set on fire.
Tension flared again on Sunday night, with one person shot and a police officer injured, in the Milwaukee area where the fatal shooting of a suspect by an officer had sparked rioting, prompting Wisconsin’s governor to activate the National Guard.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took the precaution of activating the National Guard in case more violence broke out over the death of Sylville K. Smith, 23, who was shot while trying to flee from an officer who had stopped his auto.
Police said earlier that the handgun he was carrying had been stolen during a burglary in March.
Smith’s sister said the family wanted prosecutors to charge the officer who shot him. Fearing for his safety, he was now staying with relatives out of town. That officer is now on administrative duty pending an investigation. “Not a single shot was fired” by police, Barrett said. One officer was reportedly hit on the head when a brick was thrown through a police vehicle window. Protesters also broke the windows of an unoccupied squad vehicle and torched another, police said.
WTMJ said the officer was taken to the hospital for an injury, although the extent of that officer’s injury was not known.
But Smith was father to a 2-year-old toddler, too, his mother said.
“We can not have a repeat of what happened last night”.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said Smith had been arrested 13 times.
On Sunday, the Wisconsin National Guard was put to assist the city police of Milwaukee.
Asked about the violence, Neal said: “People stuck together and they are trying to stand up”, for their rights.
He praised what he said were the scores of local people who came to the neighborhood Sunday to help clean up. Five officers were slain by a sniper in Dallas last month as they provided security at an otherwise peaceful protest against police killings.
“We are not ignorant and stupid people”, a pastor told the crowd, echoing a feeling among numerous city’s African-Americans that they are systematically mistreated.
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In Milwaukee, local official Khalif Rainey, who represents the area where the disturbances took place, called the violence a “warning cry”.
