2 shot dead as anti-racism march in US turns violent

Third night of unrest in Wisconsin following the police shooting of a Black man

KENOSHA, WISCONSIN: Two people were killed and another was wounded as shots were fired late on Tuesday in Kenosha during the third night of unrest in Wisconsin following the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, authorities said.

The shootings were reported at 11.45 pm in an area where protests have taken place, Kenosha police Lt Joseph Nosalik said. They happened after police drove away protesters from in front of a courthouse that had been the site of the main clashes between protesters and authorities.

Kenosha county sheriff David Beth said one victim was shot in the head and another was shot in the chest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Beth didn’t know where the other person was shot. His or her injuries were not believed to be life threatening.

Beth told the Sentinel that armed people had been patrolling the city’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the shooter was among them.

“They’re a militia,” Beth said. “They’re like a vigilante group.”

Cellphone video of at least two of the shootings that was posted online shows what appears to be a white man with a semi-automatic rifle jogging down the middle of a street as a crowd and some police officers follow him.

Someone in the crowd can be heard asking “What did he do?” and another responds that the man had shot someone.

The man with the gun stumbles and falls, and as he’s approached by people in the crowd, he fires three or four shots from the seated position, hitting at least two people, including one who falls over and another who stumbles away to frantic shouts of “Medic! Medic!”

With the crowd scattering, the shooter stands up and continues walking down the street as police cars arrive. The man puts up his hands and walks toward the squad cars, with someone in the crowd yelling at police that the man just shot someone, but several of the cars drive past him toward the people who had been shot.

Beth told the Sentinel that no one had been detained over the shootings, but that he thought at least one person would be soon, based on video police had reviewed. “I feel very confident we’ll have him in a very short time,” he said.

Protester Devin Scott told Chicago Tribune that he witnessed one of the shootings.

“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, and I told my friend, that’s not fireworks,” said Scott, 19.

“And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone!’ And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him and then he started shooting again.”

“I was cradling him in my arms. I was trying to keep this kid alive and he wasn’t moving or nothing. He was laying there,” Scott said. “I didn’t know what to do and then this woman starts performing CPR. There was no pulse. I don’t think he made it.”

The shooting victims have not been identified.

Earlier on Tuesday, the lawyer for Jacob Blake’s family said Blake was shot multiple times by police on Sunday and that it would “take a miracle” for him to walk again. He called for the officer who opened fire to be arrested and others involved to lose their jobs.

The shooting of Blake was captured on cellphone video and ignited new protests over racial injustice in several cities, coming just three months after the death of George Floyd.

KENOSHA COUNTY SHERIFF DAVID BETH SAID ONE VICTIM WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD AND ANOTHER WAS SHOT IN THE CHEST, THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL REPORTED.