The uncontrolled riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, left two dead and one wounded in the third day of violence over the shooting of sex-assault suspect Jacob Blake.
Last night’s fatal gunfire, media reports say, occurred when rioters confronted armed citizens trying to protect a gas station.
Multiple videos show the fear, screaming, and chaos after a man knocked down in the street shot two people. Videos also show other mayhem, including rioting thugs trying to tear down a fence around the city courthouse.
The Shootings
“Shots were fired around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, police said, the Washington Post reported:
After the first shots, a young White man carrying a rifle began running north on Sheridan Road, away from a crowd of protesters. Video shows the armed man fall to the ground and then fire multiple rounds into the crowd. Two more people fell to the ground, one shot in the arm and the other in the chest…. Another graphic video shows a man with blood running down the back of his neck and bystanders shouting that he had been shot in the head.
The fatalities, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, were the two shot in the head and chest.
A witness who filmed the shooting described the shootings:
“Oh s**t, he just shot that guy in the stomach,” he says, after which the man hit in the arm screams curses and “medic! medic!”
“Oh s**t, s**t, people are getting shot all around us,” the man recording the scene says. “People are just getting shot everywhere guys.”
“I need a f***ing medic,” the man shot in the arm says. The man recording the scene helped with a tourniquet.
Another video says a man shot in the head was “looting a car shop.”
Other videos show rioters setting a dumpster ablaze and trying to pull down a fence around the courthouse.
“After some protesters began vigorously shaking the fence and setting off fireworks aimed at officers on the other side, Kenosha County police officers atop the courthouse shot tear gas pellets and rubber bullets into the crowd,” the Post reported. “Around 9:20 p.m., a military vehicle entered the park, dispersing more tear gas. Protesters shot fireworks, both on the ground and into the courthouse steps.”
Citizens Mount Defense
The shootings are hardly a surprise. Knowing police are overwhelmed, armed citizens showed up to protect their city and the businesses not yet destroyed by the deranged rioters.
“Ain’t nothing being done,” a U.S. Marine veteran told the Post. “We’re the only ones.”
“This is nonsense,” he continued. “Three thousand of us are armed and ready.”
One reason 3,000 might be armed and ready is the Facebook page of the Kenosha Guard, the Journal-Sentinel reported, which sought recruits among law-abiding citizens to defend the city.
“Any patriots willing to take up arms and defend out [sic] City tonight from the evil thugs?” one post said. “Nondoubt [sic] they are currently planning on the next part of the City to burn tonight!”
The Kenosha Guard also asked police not to order them to abandon the city to the thugs.
“I ask that you do NOT have your officers tell us to go home under threat of arrest as you have done in the past,” a Facebook post said. “We are willing to talk to KPD and open a discussion. It is evident, that no matter how many Officers, deputies, and other law enforcement officers that are here, you will still be outnumbered.”
The Journal Sentinel also reported that some business owners were on rooftops ready to defend their property:
A Journal Sentinel reporter earlier in the evening observed a group of armed men with long guns standing guard at a dry cleaning business on Sheridan Road near 59th Street, some on the roof.
Police told them to get off the roof and a person shouted back: “Officer, this is our business.” Police did not ultimately order them off the roof.
The town police chief refused to deputize residents to reinforce his officers, the newspaper reported.
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
R. Cort Kirkwood is a lon-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
