MILWAUKEE (AP) — City leaders pleaded for calm after violence erupted for several hours Saturday night on Milwaukee’s north side following a man’s fatal shooting by police, with the mayor imploring parents of anyone at the scene to “get them
MILWAUKEE (AP) — City leaders pleaded for calm after violence erupted for several hours Saturday night on Milwaukee’s north side following a man’s fatal shooting by police, with the mayor imploring parents of anyone at the scene to “get them home right now” after at least four businesses burned and one officer was hurt.
At a news conference just after midnight, Mayor Tom Barrett said the situation appeared to be calming after a riotous scene in which as many as 100 protesters skirmished with police, torching a squad car and tossing a brick through the window of another. Police mounted at least two efforts to push the protesters out of an intersection at the heart of the violence.
The unrest began several hours after a man fleeing police after a traffic stop was shot and killed. Police said the man was armed, but it wasn’t clear whether he was pointing the gun or aiming it at officers. Barrett said the man was hit twice, in the chest and arm. Neither his race nor the officer’s was immediately released, nor were they identified.
The shooting was being investigated by the state. The officer was wearing a body camera, Barrett said. At least three people were arrested in an uprising that Barrett said was driven by social media messages instructing people to congregate in the area.
“We have to have calm,” Barrett said at the news conference. “There are a lot of really good people who live in this neighborhood.”
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