“2 dead, 1 injured as gunshots ring out in Kenosha during night protests over Jacob Blake police shooting”, Chicago Tribune
Aug 26, 2020
KENOSHA, Wis. — Two people are dead and one was seriously injured in Kenosha after gunfire broke out in the middle of a crowd of protesters during the third night of demonstrations in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, according to the Kenosha Police Department.
Protesters clashed with police officers and members of the Wisconsin National Guard for several hours outside a downtown courthouse surrounded by metal fencing and protected by armored vehicles. After repeatedly warning demonstrators they were in violation of the city’s 8 p.m. curfew, officers cleared a crowd of several hundred people from Civic Center Park across from the courthouse by firing rubber bullets and letting off canisters of tear gas.
As the crowd dispersed, some made their way south on Sheridan Road, where at least a dozen vehicles in a used car lot had been set ablaze during the two previous nights of violent demonstrations, looting and fires that burned at least 30 businesses in the city of 100,000 people. Across the street from the burned-out auto lot, men with guns protected the boarded-up Ultimate Gas Station, and videos posted to social media showed a confrontation between demonstrators and the armed men.
At 11:48 p.m., shots rang out near the gas station. Police quickly cordoned off a one-block stretch of Sheridan Road. An officer used a megaphone to urge people to clear the area: “We have multiple people down. Clear the area. We don’t want any more people shot. We have multiple shooters out here. Clear the area!”
Officials with the Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department confirmed they were investigating shootings near the gas station stemming from a confrontation with protesters. Kenosha police wrote in a statement that the victims have not yet been identified. Neither departments would say early Wednesday if anyone had been taken into custody.
Videos on Twitter appeared to show at least three victims. In one graphic video, a man with a rifle is shown getting run down by protesters in the middle of Sheridan Road and shooting at them from the ground. Another graphic video from The Daily Caller show people attending to a man shot in the parking lot of the gas station. The video shows a man removing his shirt to apply pressure to a victim’s head wound with two other people assisting nearby.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth initially told the New York Times three people had been shot, one fatally.
“I’ve had people saying, ‘Why don’t you deputize citizens?’” he told the Times. “This is why you don’t deputize citizens with guns to protect Kenosha.”
Devin Scott said 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, who lives in the Round Lake area. “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.”
Scott said he hit the ground as the next round of shots went off and a man nearby was shot in the middle of the street.
“I was cradling him in my arms. I was trying to keep this kid alive and he wasn’t moving or nothing. He was just laying there,” a visibly shaken Scott said shortly after midnight. “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 shootings took place after police and National Guard members dispersed protesters in the hours following an 8 p.m. curfew.
Protesters gathered by a newly installed fence surrounding the county courthouse and almost succeeded in tipping it over before police in riot gear streamed from the building. Some in the crowd fired heavy duty fireworks at the officers, who responded with high pitched blasts from a sound cannon.
At about 9:30 p.m., military-style heavy trucks pulled in front of the courthouse and released clouds of tear gas. The crowd, which included several men carrying long rifles and others bearing clubs or sticks, retreated slightly, but stayed put.
Law enforcement had given an order to disperse and warned of arrests. As gas hung in the air in front of the courthouse, some members of the crowd attended to protesters suffering from its effects, pouring water in their faces.
Police officers and National Guard members moved into the park, appearing to shoot canisters. The crowd cleared out of the park. With the park clear, there was a smaller standoff on Sheridan Road, a main north-south route through town. Some protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks, while police responded with tear gas and flash bangs.
A little more than 100 demonstrators shouted “Black lives matter” as officers ordered them off of the street and onto the sidewalk. As some in the crowd fled, they rolled dumpsters at armored vehicles.
The nighttime protest and chaos unfolded after Blake family attorney Benjamin Crump said at an afternoon news conference that it would take a “miracle” for the 29-year-old to walk again after a Kenosha police officer’s bullet severed Blake’s spinal cord. The family renewed calls for peaceful protests, while asking for the officer who shot him to be criminally charged.
Authorities have said little about the circumstances of the Sunday shooting in the city just over the Wisconsin border, but footage circulated widely online appears to show an officer firing several shots as Blake, who is Black, was facing away from the cop.
Family attorney Benjamin Crump demonstrates the shooting action of the police during a news conference Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Crump and other lawyers indicated they plan to file a lawsuit, saying that Blake will need extensive, costly medical care. The attorneys asked for a transparent investigation. Along with demanding charges against the cop who shot Blake, Crump said all the officers at the scene should be fired.
The attorneys and family members met a media throng in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse, which has been a focal point for protests over the shooting. As Crump spoke, a worker power-washed graffiti from the stone facade. A quintet of heavy trucks blocked nearby streets.
One of Blake’s sisters, Letetra Wideman, listed the names of Black people killed by police in recent years.
“This is nothing new. I’m not sad. I’m not sorry. I’m angry, and I’m tired,” she said. “I don’t want your pity. I want change.”
People clashed with police and destroyed property both Sunday and Monday nights, and Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, said the destruction she saw “doesn’t reflect my son or my family.” Jackson and the lawyers said Blake has been medicated and has little awareness of recent events.
“If Jacob knew what was going on as far as that goes, the violence and the destruction, he would be very unpleased, so I’m really asking and encouraging everyone in Wisconsin and abroad to take a moment and examine your heart,” she said.
Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., wept bitterly during the news conference and at one point was led away from the group.
“They shot my son seven times,” he said through tears. “Like he didn’t matter. But my son matters. He’s a human being and he matters.”
Attorney Patrick Salvi II said the shooting inflicted damage to Blake’s spinal cord, kidney, liver, colon and other internal organs, as well as his arm.
The news conference came on the second straight day that residents of Kenosha — a town of 100,000 about 60 miles north of Chicago — woke up to smoking wreckage from the night before.
In this September 2019 photo taken in Evanston, Adria-Joi Watkins poses with her second cousin Jacob Blake. (Adria-Joi Watkins/AP)
On Monday night, the crowd facing down Kenosha County sheriff’s officers at the courthouse grew confrontational, heaving a barrage of water bottles, fireworks and other objects at the officers.
Authorities had prepared for unrest Monday night. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had summoned 125 National Guard members to monitor the city.
Shortly after an 8 p.m. curfew, police announced over a loudspeaker that the gathering was an unlawful assembly. Some officers fired rounds of tear gas into the crowd, which retreated to the park across the street but did not disperse.
Footage on social media and in news accounts indicated that people smashed cars and torched buildings, including a furniture store and a state probation and parole office. A city block was cordoned off Tuesday so officials could survey damage and firefighters could put out smoldering fires. Several storefronts were badly damaged, including a computer store that had windows broken. It appeared merchandise was removed from the shelves. Smoke filled the air and visibility was low as firefighters used water cannons on the buildings.
Evers decried the destruction in tweets Tuesday and said his administration will be “increasing the presence of the Wisconsin National Guard.”
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian and County Executive Jim Kreuser issued a joint statement blaming outside agitators for the destruction, though they offered no evidence to back up the allegation.
“It is clear to us that this is no longer just a demonstration in reaction to Sunday’s tragic events,” Kreuser said in the statement. “We absolutely want to know the truth about what happened with Jacob Blake, but we have to let the investigatory process work. Destroying our city will not make that process go any faster.”
Kenosha County authorities announced the 8 p.m. curfew would be in effect again Tuesday.
Some were preparing for more destruction Tuesday evening. Downtown Kenosha, just east of the courthouse, was almost entirely boarded up. The words “kids live upstairs” were spray-painted on the wood covering a restaurant’s windows.
Court Burrell, owner of the Gold Standard Social Club tattoo parlor, said he slept in his shop the past two nights. He said friends had kept vandals away so far by telling them Burrell’s shop is a Black-owned business, but he wasn’t counting on his luck to hold.
“The thing is, I might have a Black building, but someone else might not,” he said. “They’ll set a fire there, and fires don’t care about color. Fire can jump from building to building.”
Sunday’s shooting was the latest to galvanize outraged demonstrators, who have spilled into the streets repeatedly in the three months since George Floyd died beneath the knee of a Minneapolis cop. Like other controversial uses of force, this one was captured on a harrowing video shared online.
The confrontation unfolded as police responded to a call of a domestic incident about 5 p.m. Sunday.
In the footage shared online, Blake walks from the sidewalk around the front of an SUV to the driver-side door as officers follow him with their guns pointed. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, an officer grabs his shirt from behind and appears to open fire while Blake has his back turned.
Seven shots can be heard, though it isn’t clear how many struck Blake or how many of the officers fired. During the shooting, a woman can be seen jumping up and down in the street as she screams.
The three officers at the scene were placed on administrative leave, standard practice in shootings by police, while the Wisconsin Department of Justice investigates. Authorities did not disclose the identities of the officers involved or say whether they believed Blake was armed.
There will not be body camera footage to clarify what happened because Kenosha police don’t have the devices. They’re not expected to get body cameras until 2022, Antaramian said Monday.
Crump — who represents the families of several Black people killed by police in high-profile confrontations — appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” a few hours before his news conference and alleged that Kenosha police had been the aggressors before Blake’s shooting. He said no witnesses had suggested Blake was armed.
“The video shows what happened. He was walking away. He wasn’t posing a threat to them or anything like that,” Crump said.
Crump has said three of Blake’s sons — ages 3, 5 and 8 — were in the SUV when police shot their father. The shooting happened at a birthday party for one of the sons, he said.
“You can only imagine the psychological problems that these babies are gonna have for the rest of their life,” Crump said.
Blake’s family has deep roots in Evanston, and hundreds of people rallied there Tuesday night near a housing development named for his late grandfather, also named Jacob Blake. The elder Blake was a pastor at Ebenezer AME Church in Evanston and a local leader in the civil rights movement.
William Eason, friend of Blake’s father, said, “What we’re trying to do is show the family that we support them and their message.”
Bobby Burns, one of the rally’s organizers, said, “We are under constant suspicion. Why can we not walk peacefully in our own neighborhoods?”
Kaitlin Edquist is a reporter for Pioneer Press. Chicago Tribune reporters Paige Fry and Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and the Associated Press contributed.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story erroneously said Jacob Blake died from his injuries.
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