1 shot dead as violent protests flare in American cities
PORTLAND : A man was killed in Texas as protestors marched in American cities amid a wave of public anger over Donald Trump’s planned “surge” of federal agents into major metropolises, facing off flashbang grenades, pepper spray and tear gas.
The shooting victim was fatally wounded at around 10pm local time in Austin, police said. Reports indicated the man may have been carrying a rifle when he approached a vehicle, whose driver fired several shots, according to police. The suspect was detained.
A car drove through a crowd and a protester was shot at in the suburban Denver suburb of Aurora.
Protesters in California set fire to a courthouse, damaged a police station and assaulted officers after a peaceful demonstration intensified, Oakland police said.
Demonstrators broke windows, spray painted graffiti, shot fireworks and pointed lasers at officers, the Oakland department said on Twitter.
The protest began earlier Saturday evening with groups such as the “Wall of Moms,” similar to a group that formed in Portland, Oregon, as protesters faced off with US agents deployed to that city to guard a federal courthouse. President Donald Trump had sent the federal agents to clamp down on protests that have occurred nightly since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
A city dump truck was set on fire as protesters faced off with police in Virginia’s capital during a demonstration in support of protesters on the other side of the country in Portland.
Virginia State Police and Richmond police worked to clear the crowd of a several hundred demonstrators late Saturday. City police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11pm, and what appeared to be tear gas was deployed to disperse the group.
Protesters had been planning for days the demonstration that was called “Richmond Stands with Portland,” news outlets reported, in an apparent reaction to ongoing tensions between protesters and US agents at the federal courthouse in Oregon’s largest city.
The city of Virginia Beach removed a 115-year-old Confederate monument from public grounds on Saturday, less than two days after the City Council voted unanimously to do so.
Police and federal agents fired tear gas and forcefully dispersed protesters in Portland early Saturday. Armed militia groups and Black Lives Matter protesters held opposing demonstrations Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky - separated by police barriers. Both sides were armed, according to reports.