Police said two people were fatally shot overnight in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as conflict raged in the city for a third day since the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Kenosha police received a call near midnight informing them of multiple gunshot victims. There were two deaths, and one person was transported to the hospital with “serious, but non-life-threatening injuries,” the department said in an early Wednesday morning press release.
Information about the victims has not been released. The city police department said a shooting investigation is ongoing.
Graphic videos posted to social media appear to show the moments in which at least some of the shootings took place. Town Hall reporter Julio Rosas (formerly of the Washington Examiner), who was at the scene, reported there being confrontations between protesters and armed citizens who said they wanted to protect businesses.
Rioters are getting into confrontations with armed citizens who are out here to prevent looting and destruction to businesses. pic.twitter.com/f65YkP24kG
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 26, 2020
In one video, shots ring out and a man carrying a rifle and wearing a green shirt, a white hat, and dark pants, runs toward a man lying on the ground. Richie McGinniss, chief video director for the Daily Caller, rushed toward the man as well and attempted to assist the victim, who had been shot in the head. The man in the green shirt pulled out a phone and made a call. As the man in the green shirt runs away, someone can be heard saying, “I just killed somebody.”
Other video shows a man, matching that same description, being chased down. After tripping and falling to the ground, he fired his weapon multiple times as people approached him.
Holy shit gunshots I think pic.twitter.com/YVM3VGmatQ
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) August 26, 2020
Another video shows one person who was shot by the man with a rifle fall to the ground and become motionless. The man in the green shirt then got up and backed away from the scene. More shots were fired, but it is unclear who fired them.
One man was shot in the arm at point-blank range. A different video shows the man’s serious injury and first responders rushing to assist him.
After shots were fired, what appears to be the man in the green shirt, walks toward police vehicles, his rifle slung across his chest and hands in the air. One man can be heard in the background shouting, “Hey, he just shot them! That dude right here, he just shot them!”
Tensions in the city have been rising ever since viral video emerged of Blake, a 29-year-old black man, being shot several times by police at close range during an arrest in a Kenosha neighborhood on Sunday.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, with the help of the Justice Department, is investigating the shooting. Officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave, but their identities have not been released.
The National Guard was deployed to Kenosha to assist local law enforcement. There have been reports of looting, vandalism, and fires in places across the city of roughly 100,000 residents.
