Police didn’t say who shot the man but that they were looking for suspects.
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The shooting led to a first night of protests over his death in which gunshots were fired, six businesses were torched and 17 people were arrested. He pointed out that the city saw disruptions on Sunday night, after his race had been publicized, though the intensity was less than the previous night.
The curfew earlier applied to teenagers up to and including 16-year-olds.
Barrett warned parents and guardians that police will be strictly enforcing the city’s 10 p.m. curfew for teenagers.
The sheriff of Milwaukee County railed against “the progressive left” for putting his city’s “citizens in harm’s way” in an op-ed Monday. State law requires that the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigate all police shootings, meaning that municipal officials do not now have control over the evidence.
Milwaukee has a population of about 600,000 people, with almost 40 percent African-American – many of whom are heavily concentrated on the north side of the city.
Mayor Tom Barrett called for empathy for Smith’s family.
As the sun set, pedestrians thinned out ahead of the 10 p.m. (0300 GMT Tuesday) curfew in the area, where police vehicles were seen parked in alleys and along major thoroughfares. The 24-year-old officer who shot the man has been placed on administrative duty.
Seven police officers were injured in a second night of violence Sunday that stretched into the early hours of Monday. The shooting is being investigated by the state.
Bullets struck an armored police vehicle’s windshield, and a rock broke through a police auto windshield, sending glass fragments into the eyes of two officers, the chief said.
Flynn said that while police came under fire Sunday night, “none of our officers returned fire”.
Milwaukee Police are stepping up their efforts to prevent a repeat of the violence that occurred over the past two nights. The group is distinct from the Communist Party of the USA.
“The shooting may have been the catalyst for the protest and property damage, but as any native black Milwaukeean can tell you, what’s happened here is bigger than any one incident”.
Police move in on a group of protesters throwing rocks at them in Milwaukee.
He says the police department’s ShotSpotter technology detected 30 gunshots in the neighborhood overnight.
Police Chief Edward Flynn says the fatal shooting of Sylville Smith on Saturday was a flashpoint for underlying tensions. The chief says many people outside the neighborhood are using that for their own agendas.
Smith died at the scene, and the officer who fired the fatal shots was not injured.
He said he does not condone violence, “but nobody can deny that there are racial problems here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that have to be rectified”. In Minnesota, where 32-year-old Philando Castile was shot in suburban St. Paul during a July traffic stop by a Latino police officer, protests have also dwindled in the ensuing weeks, though at one point almost 70 people were arrested as police cleared the street outside the governor’s residence.
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The Milwaukee Police Association hit back at the suggestion race may have played an issue in Smith’s shooting and condemned the riots.
