Tensions flare in US city
Protesters threw rocks and fired guns in a second night of violence in a tense neighborhood of Milwaukee following the deadly police shooting of an armed black man.
Police in riot gear moved in on the Sherman Park neighborhood in the midwestern city around 11:00 pm on Sunday (0400 GMT yesterday) to disperse an angry crowd and restore order, eager to avoid a repeat of previous violence involving law enforcement that has shaken the nation.
Officers at one point used an armored vehicle to rescue a shooting victim and rush the person to the hospital.
A police officer was hospitalized to be treated for an injury after protesters threw a rock that broke the windshield of a squad car.
An unspecified projectile was thrown at another officer, who was protected by a helmet, according to police. One squad car was damaged by thrown bricks, rocks and glass bottles.
"Officers continue to have rocks thrown at them as they work to disburse small, disorderly groups in area around Sherman and Burleigh," police said on Twitter, adding that armored vehicles were deployed to protect officers.
Multiple arrests were made, it said without giving further details. Some 125 members of the Wisconsin National Guard were activated and placed on standby early Sunday to prevent a repeat of the arson, rock-throwing and shootings that occurred the previous night.
But they were not called to the areas of the latest disturbances. Some locals reacted with shock at the degree of violence.
"I've lived here for 30 years, and I've never seen anything like this in my life," Dominic Lebourgeois told The New York Times. "I think it's crazy, it's ludicrous."
On Saturday, an angry crowd of at least 200 people took to the streets, torching at least six businesses, including a gas station and auto parts store that were destroyed, police said.
Individuals attending the rally fired dozens of shots, apparently in the air. Violence broke out following the fatal shooting of a local man, Sylville Smith, 23.
Even though Smith was said to be armed and had a lengthy police record, the shooting and its aftermath bore chilling echoes of a series of violent incidents involving law enforcement.
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