A curfew for teenagers will be enforced on the streets of Milwaukee tonight starting at 10 p.m.in the wake of the civil unrest that has overtaken parts of the city, Mayor Tom Barrett said.
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Protests first erupted Saturday, when a crowd of about 200 turned violent following the shooting of Smith, who was in a vehicle with another individual when he was stopped by two police officers. Barrett said that goes a long way in making sure that we have good police-community relations in the City of Milwaukee.
About six people were arrested in the early evening on Monday, city officials said, but the atmosphere appeared to have changed following two days of standoffs between unruly and sometimes violent demonstrators and police.
An 18-year-old man was wounded Sunday by gunfire and 11 law enforcement officers were injured as protesters pelted them with rocks and bricks, authorities said.
Tensions rise again in Milwaukee with one person shot in the neighborhood where the fatal shooting of a suspect by a police officer touched off rioting and arson the previous night.
Milwaukee police announced that four officers had been injured, a store had windows broken and 14 people were arrested.
Police say Smith was fleeing a traffic stop and was armed with a handgun when he was shot by a black police officer.
Flynn told reporters Sunday that Smith ran several meters from his vehicle before the officer, who is also black, fired his gun.
The weekend shooting of 23-year-old Sylville K. Smith in Milwaukee prompted demonstrations that turned ugly when six businesses and several cars were torched. Barrett said a still image from the video “demonstrates, without question, that he had a gun in his hand”. Arrest records for Smith released by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday showed that Smith had been arrested at least nine times since 2011 on charges including robbery, carrying a concealed weapon, and drug possession. They threw bottles, chunks of concrete and rocks at officers.
Late on Monday afternoon, dozens of police, some in riot gear, erected fencing to cordon off Sherman Park, the centre of the neighbourhood that was the scene of the weekend shooting and subsequent disturbances.
Almost 40 percent of Milwaukee’s 600,000 residents are black, and they are heavily concentrated on the north side. State law requires all police shootings to be investigated by an independent state agency, giving the state control over such evidence.
The sister of a black man shot to death by a Milwaukee police officer says the two men knew each other from high school. Crowds ebbed and flowed at the station throughout Sunday; as night fell, community and church leaders led a prayer circle and spoke of a community that needs healing from ongoing “racism, injustices and oppression”. Gauerke said the man “suffered a serious injury” and was taken to a hospital in an armored Police Department vehicle.
Governor Scott Walker put the National Guard on standby on Sunday, but so far no Guard members have been deployed.
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Barrett has urged state officials to release video of Smith’s shooting as soon as possible in hopes that it would corroborate the police department’s account and convince protesters the use of deadly force was justified. He also said the officer shot Smith in the chest and arm. Numerous protests across the nation – particularly those that led to the Black Lives Matter movement – involved white officers killing black men.
