No less than three Kenosha garbage trucks were burned out Monday and several businesses suffered damage during unrest in the city after the shooting of a Black man there Sunday.
The unrest emerged after an incident in which police shot a man in the 2800 block of 40th Street sometime after 5:11 p.m. Sunday, the encounter partially caught in a video that showed an officer firing several shots at close range into the man’s back.
Wisconsin authorities identified the shooting victim as Jacob Blake, a Black man. He was in serious condition at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee as of early Monday morning, law enforcement stated.
As of 9 a.m. Monday, garbage trucks blocked the entrance to 56th Street at Sheridan Street, outside the County Courthouse, and about 16 sheriff’s deputies wearing helmets and holding shields were standing outside the building in order to control any potential attack.
Onlookers came to observe the damage and take pictures. Others came with brooms and shovels to clean up the broken glass on the downtown streets.
Written with spray paint on the courthouse, a statement read “They kill us because they fear us, honor the dead” and “be water, spread fire.”
The smell of natural gas was in the air, and one truck of firefighters was on scene probing the incident.
Among the damaged buildings are the public library, the Dinosaur Discovery Museum, the Harborside Academy charter school, a law firm, the USPS building, and the county register of deeds.
Many who walked up said they couldn’t believe the situation plaguing so many other American cities occured in Kenosha.
These riots and protests appear to be a part of the wider riots and demonstrations that have spread across in the United States after a cop was caught on tape with his knee on the neck of a man later identified as George Floyd.
In the aftermath of the shooting, crowds soon gathered at the scene of the shooting. A livestream from podcaster Koerri Elijah revealed small fires in the street and a person, possibly an officer, lying prone on the ground, surrounded by enforcement officials.
The crowds started moving away from the scene, and the video revealed people walking down the sidewalk and street, some on bicycles with some vehicles accompanying them, occasionally chanting. The video revealed people kicking at police vehicles and later it seemed some fireworks were set off.
