The unrest followed the shooting of Sylville Smith, 23, who was stopped by a pair of police officers in a vehicle alongside another person on Saturday afternoon.
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Some two dozen officers in riot gear confronted a group who were throwing rocks and other objects at police near where the black man was fatally shot a day earlier.
“This system sees police wantonly murdering people as part of the normal order of things”, Dix said. Police said an injured officer was taken to a hospital after a rock broke the windshield of a squad vehicle.
Again, this is probably not the majority of the protestors, but there are certainly enough of them to cause some in the media to leave and even more officers on edge. Police posted on Twitter three locations where they said shots were fired.
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. Smith, who fled the vehicle, was shot by police after refusing to drop the handgun he was holding, according Milwaukee Mayor Barrett.
“It appears at this hour that a lot of parents and guardians have taken very, very seriously the curfew that has gone into effect tonight”, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted Mayor Tom Barrett as saying.
Officials said police body camera video, not yet released to the public, clearly shows that Smith had a gun and had turned around to face the officer when he was shot.
“A young man lost his life yesterday afternoon. And, no matter what the circumstances, his family must be hurting”. Among those injured in the protests were a police officer and a civilian, who was taken to a hospital after being shot. The police chief said he wasn’t sure what prompted the stop but described Smith’s auto as “behaving suspiciously”. “He was raising up with it”, the chief said. The officer (whose name is being withheld due to concerns for his safety) chased Smith on foot. It is not clear how numerous group went to Milwaukee. Smith was hit in the chest and arm, Flynn said.
The flurry of activity has prompted Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to activate the National Guard, which will not be used unless authorized by the city’s police chief, Edward Flynn, according to Barrett.
“I think it’s safe to say it’s become a particularly unsafe racial issue and I’m going to be leaving Milwaukee”, he said. Fourteen people were arrested overnight, and three police officers and four sheriff’s deputies were injured.
City Alderman Khalif Rainey said the area has been a “powder keg” for potential violence throughout the summer.
“Now this is a warning cry. That wasn’t what we went up there to do”.
“In the long term, we know we have to have more jobs in the community”.
Police Chief Flynn said following a weekend of unrest, he was already impressed these recruits. They targeted police with gunshots, rocks and bottles.
Kimberly Neal, 24, spoke as supporters surrounded her at the vigil as she held a bouquet of blue balloons.
The Milwaukee mayor on Sunday said that the damage from Saturday’s unrest was “unlike anything I’ve seen”, he said.
Milwaukee is moving up its curfew for teenagers following violence on the city’s north side after the police-involved shooting of a black man.
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The Milwaukee Police Department voluntarily placed itself under federal review following the largely peaceful protests that resulted from the police shooting death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill, unarmed black man in 2014.
