KENOSHA, Wis. — Three people were shot, one of them fatally, law enforcement authorities said early Wednesday, during a third chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black resident whose three children were nearby as their father was shot this week by a white police officer.
In Kenosha, protests over the shooting of Mr. Blake stretched into the early morning hours of Wednesday, after demonstrators clashed with law enforcement officials near the county courthouse in downtown Kenosha.
Tuesday evening was spent in a shifting, hourslong standoff between the police and protesters. Protesters assembled outside a newly erected metal barrier protecting the courthouse and threw water bottles, rocks and fireworks at the police.
The police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, repeatedly warning the crowd through a bullhorn that they were violating the city curfew of 8 p.m. and risked arrest. The crowd was eventually forced out of the park with tear gas and onto city streets, where the standoff continued.
Many protesters left the area, but others lingered and walked to a gas station several blocks away, where a group of men with guns stood outside, promising to protect the property and verbally sparring with protesters.
Close to midnight, shots were fired outside the gas station. Three people were shot, Sheriff David Beth said in an interview, and one died.
“I’ve had people saying, ‘Why don’t you deputize citizens?’” he said. “This is why you don’t deputize citizens with guns to protect Kenosha.”