In a press conference on Monday, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett declared a citywide curfew from 10 pm at night. Milwaukee police say they are battling violent unrest which was unleashed with the shooting of an armed man by a police officer on Saturday.
“There is a curfew that will be more strictly enforced tonight for teenagers,” the mayor said. “So parents, after 10 o’clock your teenagers better be home or in a place where they’re off the streets.” He did not expound on the consequences curfew violators should expect.
The skirmishes were initiated as a response to a Milwaukee officer shooting and killing a 23-year-old black man. Sylville Smith was shot after he allegedly pointed a stolen semi-automatic handgun at police.
On Saturday night, protesters filled the streets in the neighborhood where the shooting happened. Police estimated between 200 and 800 people were part of the protests. 17 were arrested, and according to Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, they all had previous criminal records.
According to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s statement last night, things got “out of hand” when people, using Facebook, spread the word to congregate near the scene of the crime. Violence soon entered the scene. Protesters set four businesses and several police cars on fire, threw rocks at police, and shattered police car windows with rocks, and vandalized bus shelters and street lights. The mayor reported that the city’s ShotSpotter technology, which tracks gunshots, registered 30 shots overnight.
Four officers were injured Sunday, and one 18-year-old male suffered a gunshot wound from an unknown shooter.
Barrett singled out groups of young people from the Sherman Park neighborhood who he said were intent on causing trouble. “Those individuals, in my mind, are deliberately trying to damage a great neighborhood in a great city,” Barrett said at the news conference.
DeShawn Corprue, 31, who lives in Sherman Park, said that whatever information police released about Smith’s death would not have hindered the weekend’s violence. “People are just so angry,” he said.
