Two dead in shootings as Wisconsin rocked by protests following police 'paralysis' of black man
Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore
Two people have died, and one more is injured, following a third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The city has been rocked by unrest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man "left paralysed" after he was shot multiple times - apparently in the back.
Police and demonstrators clashed again on Tuesday with gunshots audible in footage posted on social media from at least one neighbourhood where residents, and people said to be carrying guns and other weapons, remained in the streets past the 8pm curfew.
Kenosha Police are investigating after videos appeared to show at least two people with gunshot wounds.
A state of emergency has been declared in the city, with Wisconsin's governor calling for calm, while also doubling the National Guard deployment in Kenosha from 125 to 250
The latest unrest comes as a family lawyer for Mr Blake said it would "take a miracle" for him to walk again.
Attorney Ben Crump confirmed on Tuesday what Mr Blake's father had earlier told reporters, that the 29-year-old had been left paralysed by the shooting.
Mr Blake was shot - apparently in the back - as he leaned into his SUV, while his three children sat in the vehicle.
One of the bullets is reported to have passed through his spinal cord.
It came just three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which sparked a wider reckoning on race that spread across the globe.
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Mr Crump told reporters that bullets had severed Mr Blake’s spinal cord and shattered his vertebrae.
Another attorney said there was also severe damage to organs.
"It’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again," Mr Crump said.
The 29-year-old's father - also called Jacob Blake - said: "They shot my son seven times, seven times, like he didn’t matter. But my son matters. He’s a human being and he matters."
Mr Blake's mother, Julia Jackson, said the first thing her son said to her when she saw him was he was sorry.
"He said, ‘I don’t want to be a burden on you guys,’" Ms Jackson said.
"‘I want to be with my children, and I don’t think I’ll walk again.’"
Three of the Mr Blake’s sons — aged three, five and eight — were in the car at the time of the shooting, Mr Crump said.
He added it was the eight-year-old's birthday.
The legal team plans to file a civil lawsuit against the police department.
Police in the city have said little about what happened, other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute. The officers involved have not been named but have been placed on administrative leave as is standard practice in a shooting by police.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating.
That has done little to quell unrest in the city and surrounding areas, however, as protests continued for a third night.
Police again fired tear gas at demonstrators who had gathered outside Kenosha’s courthouse, where some shook a protective fence and threw water bottles and fireworks at officers lined up behind it.
Officers used armoured vehicles and police with shields to push back the crowd when protesters ignored warnings to leave a nearby park - many breaking the 8pm curfew imposed.
Aerial footage shows the scale of damage caused as unrest escalates in the city:
The night before crowds destroyed dozens of buildings and set more than 30 fires in the city’s downtown.
"We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue," said Governor Tony Evers, who is facing mounting pressure from Republicans - months before the US election - over his handling of the unrest.
"We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction," he said.
US Senator Ron Johnson and Representative Bryan Steil, both Republicans, called on the governor to do more to quell the unrest.
Mr Blake’s family also called for calm.
Anger over the shooting has spread to other cities including Los Angeles, Wisconsin’s capital of Madison and in Minneapolis - the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer following George Floyd’s death.