National Guard called out after police shoot Black man

KENOSHA,
Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s governor summoned the National Guard for fear
of another round of violent protests Monday after the police shooting of
a Black man under murky circumstances turned Kenosha into the nation’s
latest flashpoint city in a summer of racial unrest.

Democratic
Gov. Tony Evers said 125 members of the National Guard would be in
Kenosha by night with responsibility for “guarding infrastructure and
making sure our firefighters and others involved are protected.” County
authorities also announced an 8 p.m. curfew.

The move came after
protesters set cars on fire, smashed windows and clashed with officers
in riot gear Sunday night over the wounding of 29-year-old Jacob Blake,
who was hospitalized in serious condition. In a widely seen cellphone
video made by an onlooker, he was shot, apparently in the back, as he
leaned into his SUV while his three children sat in the vehicle.

Tensions
flared anew on Monday after a news conference with Kenosha Mayor John
Antarmian, originally to be held in a park, was moved inside the city’s
public safety building. Hundreds of protesters rushed to the building
and a door was snapped off its hinges before police in riot gear
pepper-sprayed the crowd, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Police
in the former auto manufacturing center of 100,000 people midway
between Milwaukee and Chicago said they were responding to a call about a
domestic dispute. They did not say whether Blake was armed or why
police opened fire, they released no details on the domestic dispute,
and they did not immediately disclose the race of the three officers at
the scene.

The man who claimed to have made the video, 22-year-old
Raysean White, said that he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and
heard them yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire
erupted. He said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.

The
governor said that he has seen no information to suggest Blake had a
knife or other weapon, but that the case is still being investigated by
the state Justice Department.

The officers were placed on administrative leave, standard practice in a shooting by police.

Evers
was quick to condemn the bloodshed, saying that while not all details
were known, “what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black
man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the
hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.”

Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden called for “an immediate, full and
transparent investigation” and said the officers “must be held
accountable.”

“This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with
grief and outrage that yet another Black American is a victim of
excessive force,” he said, just over two months before Election Day in a
country already roiled by the recent deaths of George Floyd in
Minneapolis, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta and Breonna Taylor in
Louisville, Kentucky. “Those shots pierce the soul of our nation.”

Republicans
and the police union accused the politicians of rushing to judgment,
reflecting the deep partisan divide in Wisconsin, a key presidential
battleground state. Wisconsin GOP members also decried the violent
protests, echoing the law-and-order theme that President Donald Trump
has been using in his reelection campaign.

“As always, the video
currently circulating does not capture all the intricacies of a highly
dynamic incident,” Pete Deates president of the Kenosha police union,
said in a statement. He called the governor’s statement “wholly
irresponsible.”

The shooting happened around 5 p.m. Sunday and was
captured from across the street on video that was posted online.
Kenosha police do not have body cameras but do have body microphones.

In
the footage, Blake walks from the sidewalk around the front of his SUV
to his driver-side door as officers follow him with their guns pointed
and shout at him. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, an
officer grabs his shirt from behind and opens fire while Blake has his
back turned.

Seven shots can be heard, though it isn’t clear how
many struck Blake or how many officers fired. During the shooting, a
Black woman can be seen screaming in the street and jumping up and down.

White,
who claimed to have made the video, said that before the gunfire, he
looked out his window and saw six or seven women shouting at each other
on the sidewalk. A few moments later, Blake drove up in his SUV and told
his son, who was standing nearby, to get in the vehicle, according to
White. White said Blake did not say anything to the women.

White
said he left the window for a few minutes, and when he came back, saw
three officers wrestling with Blake. One punched Blake in the ribs, and
another used a stun gun on him, White said. He said Blake got free and
started walking away as officers yelled about a knife.

Civil
rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Blake’s family, said Blake was
“simply trying to do the right thing by intervening in a domestic
incident.”

Police did not immediately confirm either man’s account.

Crump told The Associated Press that Blake’s family asked that the demonstrations remain peaceful.

“They don’t believe violence to be the solution,” he said.

Online
court records indicate Kenosha County prosecutors charged Blake on July
6 with sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection
with domestic abuse. An arrest warrant was issued the following day.
The records contain no further details and do not list an attorney for
Blake.

It was unclear whether that case had anything to do with the shooting.

Blake’s
partner, Laquisha Booker, told NBC’s Milwaukee affiliate, WTMJ-TV, that
the couple’s three children were in the back seat of the SUV when
police shot him.

“That man just literally grabbed him by his
shirt and looked the other way and was just shooting him. With the kids
in the back screaming. Screaming,” Booker said.

Crump, who has
also represented the Floyd and Taylor families, called the police
officers’ actions “irresponsible, reckless and inhumane” and added:
“It’s a miracle he’s still alive.”

In the unrest that followed
Sunday night, social media posts showed neighbors gathering in the
streets and shouting at police. Others appeared to throw objects at
officers and damage police vehicles. Officers fired tear gas to disperse
the crowds.

In a scene that mirrored the widespread protests in
recent months over police brutality and racial inequality, marchers
headed to the Kenosha County Public Safety Building, which houses the
police and sheriff’s departments. Authorities mostly blocked off the
building, which officials said was closed on Monday because of damage.

For more than 100 years, Kenosha was an auto manufacturing center, but it has now largely been transformed into a bedroom community for Milwaukee and Chicago. The city is about 67% white, 11.5% Black and 17.6% Hispanic, according to 2019 Census data. Both the mayor and police chief are white. About 17% of the population lives in poverty.

Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, and Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis contributed.