Police in the now relatively calm Midwestern city faced off with protesters in the city’s Sherman Park neighbourhood on Saturday and again on Sunday after the death of 23-year-old Sylville Smith, who officials say was armed.
Advertisement
The Milwaukee PD officer who shot and killed Sylville Smith had known him for years.
The Milwaukee Police Department said that an 18-year-old man was shot during the protests and they used an armored vehicle to take him to a hospital.
Smith, the man killed by police, had a long arrest history but no felony convictions, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Milwaukee police are aware of threats on social media, against both the officer and police in general, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Sunday.
Police Chief Edward Flynn told reporters Sunday that 23-year-old Sylville Smith had been pulled over around 3:30 p.m. while driving a vehicle that drew an officer’s suspicion.
The chief said Smith ran for several meters, then pointed his weapon at the officer before the 24-year-old policeman, who is also black, fired his gun.
Wisconsin state law requires police shootings be investigated by an independent state agency, which controls such evidence.
A few hours later, violence erupted on the city’s largely black north side, with protesters hurling rocks at police and burning six businesses.
Tension eased on Monday night in Milwaukee, as teenagers respected a late night curfew to deter a third night of the rioting that hit the US Midwestern city following the police shooting of an armed black man.
Police made several arrests earlier on Monday evening and officers in riot gear cordoned off Sherman Park, where the shooting took place and the scene of violent protests that have gripped the U.S. city.
The new clip from CNN, rather than painting Smith as calling for peace, includes her saying that violence should be taken out of black communities and into the suburbs.
The confrontations continued overnight and resumed on Sunday night.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker activated the state’s National Guard earlier in the day after discussions with Clarke and Barrett, among others.
Smith’s sister Sherelle Smith, revealed in an interview with Fox 6 that the officer went to high school with her brother. You can hear Heaggan-Brown rapping and say, “Imma start a riot like it’s Baltimore”.
“What happened … may not have been right, and I am not justifying that, but no one can deny the fact that there are problems, racial problems in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that need to be rectified”, Rainey said.
In April 2014, white officer Christopher Manney shot Dontre Hamilton more than a dozen times.
Four officers were hurt and one person suffered a gunshot wound, according to authorities.
“The vast majority of the residents are not interested in doing damage to where they live”, he said. “Burn that s*** down”, Smith said.
Around 10:30 p.m., however, a group of perhaps 100 demonstrators began marching through the streets, eventually blocking an intersection next to a BP gas station that burned down the night before.
Advertisement
“Now y’all see his face if he’s seen anywhere in the city drop him”, one social media user wrote. Though perceptions are obviously subject to change once body-cam footage is released, there is at this writing no reason to believe the officer acted improperly and, indeed, no serious allegation that he did.
