Tensions grip Philadelphia after shooting
PHILADELPHIA: Tension gripped the streets of Philadelphia for a second night on Tuesday (local time) after police fatally shot a black man armed with a knife and described by relatives as suffering from a mental breakdown.
A night after violence and looting in the west Philadelphia neighbourhood near where Walter Wallace (27) was gunned down on Monday, hundreds of demonstrators marched again demanding racial justice while police and National Guard troops braced for more disorder.
Tuesday’s rallies began peacefully but grew more confrontational as darkness fell, and police turned out in force to cordon off a section of the city’s 52nd St commercial district lined with shops that were looted the previous night.
Police in riot gear arriving in squad cars, on bicycles and on buses used their bikes to shove jeering protesters back from barricade lines. Aerial news footage broadcast by an NBC television affiliate also showed the looting of a Walmart retail outlet.
Monday’s upheavals erupted hours after a bystander’s video footage was posted on social media showing two officers opening fire on Wallace after he failed to heed their orders to back off and to drop the knife he was holding.
The video showed Wallace approaching the officers, who drew their guns after warning him to put down the knife. The video shows the officers backing up before the camera cuts briefly away as gunfire erupts and Wallace collapses.
Wallace suffered from bipolar disorder, and his psychological difficulties were relayed by his wife to the officers who encountered him before the shooting, a lawyer for his family said.
Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said police had responded to a call about a man screaming who was armed with a knife, and each officer fired about seven rounds. He declined to give further details pending the outcome of an investigation.
The encounter transformed Philadelphia into the latest flashpoint in a monthslong series of protests across the United States set off by the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed AfricanAmerican man in handcuffs, pinned by his neck to the street under the knee of a white Minneapolis policeman. — Reuters