Seeking to restrict an influx of traffic, authorities blocked off all exit ramps leading from Interstate-94 into Kenosha County from the nearby city of Racine south to the Illinois border along Lake Michigan. Officials, blaming outside agitators or much of the lawlessness surrounding demonstrations, said some three dozen fires were set on Monday night, mostly in an uptown, predominantly minority neighborhood where numerous businesses were burned. She also said her son would disapprove of damage done to the city, declaring, "It doesn't reflect my son or my family." Julia Jackson, Blake's mother, said her son "has been fighting for his life," but called for unity, saying she was praying for police officers. Seven times! Like he didn't matter," Jacob Blake Sr., trembling with emotion, told reporters. The police have not explained why Blake was shot.Īt an afternoon news conference, Blake's parents voiced anguish over the shooting while decrying two previous nights of looting, vandalism and arson that overshadowed peaceful protests in Kenosha, a city of about 100,000 people 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Three of his young sons inside the automobile - aged 3, 5 and 8 - witnessed their father being gunned down, according to civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Blake family.Ī bystander captured the encounter in video footage that immediately went viral, unleashing outrage over the latest in a long series of instances in which police have been accused of using indiscriminate lethal force against African Americans.īlake, who had been attempting to break up a quarrel between two women, was struck by four of seven gunshots fired at him, all by one officer, and there was "no indication he was armed," Crump said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday. The disturbances came hours after Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency and vowed to deploy additional National Guard troops in a bid to restore order in the town, while the mother of the man who was shot, Jacob Blake Jr, publicly appealed for calm.īlake, 29, a father of six, was struck from behind at point-blank range in a hail of bullets fired on Sunday by police who were following him with guns drawn as he walked away from officers to his car and opened a door to the vehicle. But there was no immediate sign of buildings or cars being set ablaze, as happened on Monday night.Ībout three hours after declaring the protest an unlawful assembly, authorities had managed to push Tuesday night's crowd out of the downtown park, with demonstrators scattering down streets.
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