The chief of police has asked for more time before releasing the video.
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The victim has been identified by CNN as Sylville Smith. Wisconsin state law requires an independent investigation anytime a police officer is involved in a deadly shooting. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said officers came under gunfire, with the windshield of an armored vehicle struck twice by bullets. It will reopen at 6 a.m. on Tuesday. Shortly after stopping the suspects, both occupants fled from the vehicle on foot. As people on social media tried to make sense of what happened, a video of a man who said he was the brother of Smith talking to the local CBS affiliate made the rounds.
Milwaukee has become the latest American city to be gripped by violence over the past two years in response to fatal police confrontations with black men. Before he was killed, Smith refused to drop an illegal handgun he was carrying, police said. He has six years of service with MPD, three years as an officer.
While the state is investigating the shooting, the officer who fired the fatal shots has been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation. Police said the officer shot Smith after he failed to comply with orders to put his gun down. Meanwhile reports surfaced that rioters were targeting white people for attack. You get a lot of people that is hurt. The protests have resulted in multiple injuries and numerous incidents of property damage, including burned buildings and rocks thrown at police squad cars.
Randolph McLaughlin, a Pace University law professor and a civil rights attorney, questioned how Milwaukee leaders could have expected the streets to stay quiet on Saturday night given the national debate about law enforcement and race.
Officers wearing helmets and body armor moved to disperse the crowds after shots rang out on Sunday night.
“We keep focusing on the police”, said Sheriff David Clarke.
Before Sunday’s violence, Smith’s sister told The Associated Press that the family wants prosecutors to charge the officer who shot him.
Flynn said publicly that the Chicago activists representing the Revolutionary Communist Party are the ones who “started to cause problems” Sunday night, the Chicago Tribune and others reported.
The shooting occurred near the location of an August 9 double homicide in which a man was shot dead and another was fatally stabbed, police said.
According to FOX 6, the suspect has been identified as Sylville Smith. Was the officer expected to tase Smith?
Police said early Monday that an 18-year-old Milwaukee man was seriously injured when he was shot during the unrest Sunday night. “We can not have the social upheaval – the chaos that we saw [Saturday] night that frightens good, law-abiding people in those neighborhoods”.
It is unclear whether riots will continue tonight in Milwaukee.
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The crowds shrank to only a few dozen lingering outside Sherman Park, which police barricaded with orange fencing before the 10 p.m. curfew for minor Monday night.
