Kenosha, Wis. – Three other people were shot dead, two fatally as protests continued on the third night after the police shooting at Jacob Blake, Kenosha police said. The condition of the third victim is serious but does not endanger his life, police said. There is no initial word about the location of one or more suspects or how the occasions developed.
Police said they and the agencies responded at 11:45 p.m. reports of gunfire.
The shooting came after clashes broke out between protesters and law enforcement in Kenosha, and after lawyers in Blake’s family previously said he was paralyzed from the waist down.
Tensions also arose before Tuesday between protesters and an organization supposedly willing to protect assets. The organization showed up in an armada and promised to protect any assets in Kenosha that might be damaged, reports WDJT-TV, a CBS Milwaukee affiliate. There is no news of a connection between his presence and the violence that later took place.
Armored cars fired tear fuel to disperse a crowd of protesters who piled up outside Kenosha’s courthouse Tuesday night, WDJT said. The crowd threw objects, adding glass and plastic bottles.
Rubber bullets were fired as the crowd walked to the gate of the courthouse, retreated and then drove again.
Police warned them to leave the area, but the crowd did not. Police then used more tear fuel and rubber bullets to cover the park adjacent to the courthouse.
CBS Chicago reports that more fires were lit in Kenosha on Wednesday night.
Blake, the 29-year-old black boy who shot several times through the police in Kenosha, underwent another operation on Sunday and “struggled to survive,” said family circle lawyer Benjamin Crump.
The shooting, allegedly behind Blake and his three young men in a car as they bowed, sparked further protests against racial injustice in several cities, and some turned into violence. Blake was shot three months after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police.
“The medical diagnosis right now is that he’s paralyzed and because those bullets cut off his spinal cord and damaged some of his vertebrae. Array… It’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to walk again,” Crump said. “Lately he’s in surgery as we speak, still suffering to maintain his life and become a kind of resemblance to the man he once was.”
Lawyer Patrick Salvi explained Blake’s injuries and told reporters that at least one bullet had torn his spinal cord. Salvi also said the bullets left holes in Blake’s stomach, hurt his kidneys and liver, and required “almost all of his colon and small intestine” to be removed.
The shooting, which is under investigation through the Wisconsin Department of Justice, occurred around 5pm. when officials responded to calls from a domestic incident. Video of the encounter showed Blake moving away from the police, prompting a police officer to put on his blouse while trying to open the driver’s side door of a parked SUV. The officer then shot Blake several times in the back.
The video temporarily went viral on social media, causing riots in the city. Two officers involved in the detention were placed on administrative leave. The FBI is assisting the Wisconsin Department of Justice in the investigation.
Governor Tony Evers declared Tuesday a state of emergency in Wisconsin and the presence of up to 250 members of the state National Guard. The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department instituted a schedule at 8 p.m. curfew for the third night in a row.
Members of Blake’s family circle condemned the shooting Tuesday. “My son was shot seven times, seven times as if it didn’t matter,” his father said at the press conference. “But my son counts. He’s a human being and he counts.”
“My son fought for his life and we only needed prayers,” his mother said.
“Many other people contacted me and told me that they regretted this happening to my circle of relatives,” said one of her sisters. “Well, don’t regret it, because this has been going down to my circle of relatives for a long time, more than I can explain. It happened to Emmett Till. Emmett Till is my circle of relatives. Philando (Castille), Mike Brown, Sandra (Bland) – this happened to my circle of relatives, and I cried for the other people it happened to.”
“I am and am tired. I didn’t cry once,” he added. “I stopped crying years ago. I’m numb. I see the police murdering other people who have looked like me for years.”