The incident occurred during a demonstration to protest the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman shot at her home by the Louisville Police on March 13.
According to a police statement, quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency, security forces were called at 21:00 on Saturday, local time (02:00 today in Portugal), when shots were heard in the Park Jefferson Square, epicenter for several weeks of protests against racism and police violence.
A man died at the scene and a person was hospitalized, according to the police, who are investigating the attack “to identify everyone involved in the incident”.
A video posted on social media shows a man opening fire, while protesters seek shelter.
“It is a tragedy that this area of peaceful protests has now become the scene of a crime,” said the local mayor, Greg Fischer, in a statement.
This is the second shooting in a month in Louisville, where protests for the death of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in Minneapolis are multiplying.
On May 28, seven people were injured as a result of a shooting in the area, prompting Taylor’s mother to call on protesters to claim justice “without hurting each other”.
Breonna Taylor was shot dead at home on March 13 when police officers raided the site, looking for drugs that would never be found.
Three months later, only one of the three agents involved in the incident was fired. Protesters have been complaining for weeks that the three are accused of murder.
The case led to protests against racism and police violence, just as it would in May with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
In addition to the death of the 46-year-old African-American, protesters also frequently refer to the death of Breonna Taylor, as well as Ahmaud Arbery, shot while jogging, and Rayshard Brooks, killed during a police detention.
George Floyd died on May 25, in Minneapolis (Minnesota), after a white policeman kneeled him in the neck for about eight minutes.
Since the dissemination of images on social networks, protests against police violence and racism have occurred in dozens of American cities and around the world.
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