A man, identified as Jacob Blake, was in serious condition at a Milwaukee-area hospital after he was shot when officers were sent to the 2800 block of 40th Street late Sunday afternoon for what police called a domestic incident.
More than 60 people were gathered following the shooting at the scene with several saying that the Black man was trying to break up a verbal altercation between two women shortly after 5 p.m.
According to a police department press release, Kenosha police were sent to the incident at 5:11 p.m. and were subsequently involved in an officer-involved shooting.
According to the release, officers provided immediate aid to the man, who was transported via Flight for Life to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa. The man was in serious condition. Police radio traffic indicated that a landing zone was established at Bradford High School just before 5:30 p.m. and the man was then transported.
Dozens of squad cars from the Kenosha Police and Kenosha County Sheriff’s department and Wisconsin State Patrol converged in the Wilson Heights neighborhood, lining the streets approaching the scene.
The incident was being turned over to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation, which will be investigating the officer involved shooting.
At least a half dozen witnesses said that the man had tried to break up a fight between the two women outside a home at 2805 40th St. and that police had attempted to use a Taser on the man prior to the shooting. Then, they heard at least seven gunshots ring out.
A neighbor said Blake was attending his 3-year-old son’s birthday party on the lawn of his apartment building. The neighbor, a 23-year-old named Marie, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation from police, said an argument began between two women at some point. When a police officer approached, Blake was standing near the silver vehicle in the street, and one of the women directed police to him, Marie said.
The officer “didn’t ask questions; he just grabbed” Blake, Marie said, and tried to use a Taser to stun him, which did not work. Then Blake walked to the front of the car, she said, and was shot by police.
A video circulating on social media shows a man in a white shirt and black shorts walking to a gray van, followed by two male police officers with weapons drawn. The video does not show what happened before the man walked away from the officers, nor what was said, if anything.
As the man opens the door to get in, an officer grabs his shirt to hold him still, then appears to shoot him in the back at close range. Seven shots are heard, followed by a car horn, presumably from the man's head falling forward. A woman who followed behind the police can be seen screaming and jumping up and down.
Stella London, who lives in the area, and her daughters said Monday that they think Blake was breaking up a fight between two women over a scratch on one of their cars.“It all came from a scratched vehicle. It’s just so sad,” said Sheila Winters, 65.
An hour later, members of the local Black Lives Matter movement in Kenosha along with a representative from the Lake County movement also arrived to protest the shooting.
County Board Supervisor Zach Rodriguez, who also arrived at the scene, said the whole incident highlights the need for officers wearing body cameras as he pointed out how city officers do not wear them. Sheriff’s deputies also do not have body cameras.
Large crowds soon gathered at the scene of the shooting, and protests and unrest, including several fires, continued into the early hours of Monday.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, whom the Blake family has retained to represent them, shared a video from the incident on Twitter. He also said Blake's three sons were in the car when Blake was shot.
Kenosha businesses damaged and vehicles burned
At least three Kenosha garbage trucks were burned out Monday and several businesses’ windows were shattered during unrest in the city.
Wisconsin officials identified the shooting victim as Jacob Blake, a Black man. He was in serious condition.
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 still standing outside the building.
Onlookers came to witness the damage and take pictures. Others came with brooms and shovels to clean up the broken glass on the downtown streets.
The smell of natural gas was in the air, and one truck of firefighters was on scene investigating.
Among the damaged buildings: 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 happened in Kenosha.
In the aftermath of the shooting Sunday night, large crowds, possibly hundreds, soon gathered at the scene of the shooting.A livestream from podcaster Koerri Elijah showed small fires in the street and a person, possibly an officer, lying prone on the ground, surrounded by officers.
The crowds began moving away from the scene, and the video showed people walking down the sidewalk and street, some on bicycles with some vehicles accompanying them, occasionally chanting. The video showed people kicking at police vehicles and later it appeared some fireworks were set off.
"Things have been very heated, tons of damage to cop cars, an officer was actually knocked out," the person taking video said.
A crowd of about 100 had reached the Kenosha County Public Safety Building by 10:15 p.m. and were chanting "no justice, no peace."
By midnight a couple hundred people who stood in the square next to the courthouse watching city dump trucks become engulfed in flames.
At 12:21 a.m., a few hundred people could be seen milling around the courthouse, which was tagged with graffiti condemning the shooting and police.
Someone set a fire outside the courthouse. Officers arrived extinguished; soon after, officers also began firing what appeared to be tear gas canisters.
Protesters then began smashing windows at the administration building near the courthouse. Officers formed a line behind a police vehicle and continued to deploy what appeared to be tear gas or smoke bombs.
According to a Facebook livestream by Mercado Media, police shortly before 1 a.m. were asking for voluntary cooperation to disperse the area and leave the park.
"This is an unlawful assembly. Please leave the area," police could be heard telling the crowd as gas canisters were fired their way.