Somber night of protests in Kenosha
Apeaceful turn after recent chaos in wake of shootings.
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Night of somber protests in Kenosha,
Groupsthat KENOSHA,WIS.— hadtakentoKenosha’sstreets withgunswerenowheretobe seen early Thursday followingsomberprotestsandminimal unrest for the first night since the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Marchers were solemn during Wednesday night’s protests in the southeasternWisconsin city between Milwaukee and Chicago following the chaos of the previous night, when authorities say a 17-year-old from a nearby Illinois community fatally shot two demonstrators and wounded a third.
“Last night was very peaceful,” said Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth during aThursdaynews conference duringwhich he and other city leaders refused to answer questions. “Tuesday night, not quite so peaceful, but it wasn’t too bad.”
It was Tuesday nightwhen two peoplewere killed in the street in shootings largely caught on cellphone video and posted online. A sheriff’s department spokesman did not immediately return amessage seeking clarity on Beth’s comment.
The incident late Tuesday and the shooting by police Sunday of Blake, a 29-yearold Black father of six who was left paralyzed from the waist down, made Kenosha the latest focal point in the fight against racial injustice that has gripped the country since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Kenoshapolice facedquestions about their interactions with the gunman on Tuesday night. According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the gunmanwalk past them and leave the scene with a rifle over his shoulder and his hands in the air asmembers of the crowd yelled for him to be arrested because he had shot people.
As for how the gunman managed to slip away, Beth has describeda chaotic, highstress scene, with lots of radio traffic and people screaming, chanting and running — conditions he said can cause “tunnel vision” among law officers.
The national and state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday called for the resignation of Beth and Kenosha Police Chief Dan Miskinis over their handling of Blake’s death and the subsequent protests and rioting.
Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, about 15 miles from Kenosha, was taken into custodyWednesday in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide in the shootings.
Rittenhousewas assigned a public defender in Illinois for a hearing today on his transfer to Wisconsin. The public defender’s office had nocomment. UnderWisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.
There were no groups patrolling Kenosha’s streets with gunsWednesday night and protesters stayed away from a courthouse that had beenthe siteof standoffswith lawenforcement. Unlike the previous two nights, when dozens of fireswere set and businesses were ransacked and destroyed, therewas no widespread unrest.
Protesters marched past the intersection where two people were killed Tuesday night, stopping to pray and layflowers. DaijonSpannsaid he joined the demonstration because one of those killed the night beforewas a friend.
“I couldn’t take it any more,” he said. “I couldn’t just sit there and watch my friend die.”
The two men who were killed were Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, and AnthonyHuber, 26, of Silver Lake, about 15 mileswest of the city.