The man, identified as Jacob Blake, remained this Monday 24-A in critical condition. The three children of the victim witnessed the shooting.
By:
AFP
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The US city of Kenosha, in Wisconsin, was the scene of protests after a police officer shot a black man in the back several times on Sunday 23-A, a short distance away and while he was getting into a vehicle, according to a video of the incident.
The man, identified as Jacob Blake by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, was taken to a hospital in Milwaukee and was in critical condition, Kenosha police said.
“Tonight, Jacob Blake was shot multiple times in the back, in broad daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin,” Evers tweeted.
“Although we do not yet have all the details, we clearly know that he is not the first black man or person to be shot or injured or to be mercilessly murdered at the hands of members of the forces of order in our state or our country,” he continued .
Police said the shooting occurred while responding to a domestic incident, around 5:11 p.m. local time.
Video of the incident recorded from a mobile phone shows a black man being followed by two policemen with guns, while trying to get into the front of a gray van.
When he opens the door and tries to get to the driver’s seat, one of the officers grabs him by the shirt and apparently shoots him several times in the back.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Blake’s three sons were in the truck when it all happened and that the man had tried to intervene in a fight between two women.
“They saw a policeman shoot his father. They will be traumatized forever,” Crump wrote on Twitter.
Crump represents the family of George Floyd, an African-American who died on May 25 at the hands of a white policeman, who knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Several vehicles and establishments were burned during protests on the night of Sunday 23-A.
After dark in Kenosha, a crowd of protesters clashed with riot police, according to images published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The city later declared a night curfew.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said its criminal investigation division is investigating what happened.
“The officers involved have received an administrative discharge,” the department said in a statement early Monday.
Floyd’s death sparked massive protests across the United States against racism and police brutality.
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