After fatal shots during protests in the US city of Kenosha, a 17-year-old previously arrested has been charged with two murders. He is also charged, among other things, with an attempted murder and illicit possession of weapons, according to court documents. Two people were killed and one injured in Kenosha on Wednesday night.
At least the incident in which one person was shot and another injured is recorded on video. The protests in Kenosha broke out after an African American was shot in the back during a police operation on Sunday. There were also acts of violence – buildings and cars were set on fire. The 17-year-old, who officially resides in the neighboring state of Illinois, came across a group of armed civilians who said they wanted to protect property, according to eyewitness reports and videos posted online. He was arrested in Illinois on Wednesday.
On Thursday night it remained largely quiet in Kenosha, as the city’s sheriff and police chief said. At the same time, the police announced that they had arrested several people from another state because they suspected that these people were planning “criminal activities” on the sidelines of the protests.
The family man Jacob Blake, who was seriously injured by seven bullets in the police operation on Sunday, is conscious in the hospital, as his father told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. Although he was paralyzed from the waist down, he was handcuffed to the bed, criticized Jacob Blake Sr.
A video of the police operation shows Blake walking to his car, followed by two police officers with guns drawn. One of the weapons is pointed at his back. When Blake opens the driver’s door and leans into the car, the shots are fired. Blake’s children, ages three, five, and eight, sat in the car.
Blake had a knife in his vehicle, Wisconsin State Attorney General Joshua Kaul said on Wednesday. The knife had been secured on the floor of the interior on the driver’s side. The man had previously told the police “at a certain point in time” that he had a knife, said Kaul. No other weapons were found in the car. Kaul made no further information about the course of the incident. The police in Kenosha do not yet have cameras on their bodies. The course of the incident, recorded on video by eyewitnesses, had sparked allegations of unjustified police violence.
Quelle: What / Dpa
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