Two dead as gunfire erupts at Wisconsin protests over shooting of black man
Flares go off in front of a Kenosha Country sheriff vehicle in Wisconsin, the US.
Two people died and a third was wounded after street protests over the police shooting of a black man erupted into gun violence late on Tuesday and early Wednesday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police said.
The Lake Michigan city of about 100,000 has been rocked by civil unrest since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake, 29, in the back at point-blank range. The incident, captured on video, has reignited protests over racism and police use of force in the United States.
The third straight night of protests, which coincided with the second night of the Republican National Convention, had appeared to turn calm after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who defied a curfew.
But with a combustible mix of demonstrators still roaming the streets, including self-appointed militias armed with rifles, tensions boiled over shortly before midnight, leading to chaotic scenes of people running and screaming amid a volley of gunfire and others tending to gunshot wounds.
It remained uncertain what prompted the initial gunfire, though it involved a white man with a rifle who wrangled with and fired on other civilians, then walked past several police cars without being arrested, video on social media showed.
The Kenosha protests have drawn mostly peaceful demonstrators under the Black Lives Matter banner, but a range of white and black people have caused trouble late at night, setting fires, vandalizing public property and bashing vehicles with baseball bats.
Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers deployed 250 members of the National Guard to help restore order after the first night of unrest. But US Representative Bryan Steil, a Republican whose district includes Kenosha, said more force was needed.
