Teen curfew in Milwaukee after violent protests
MILWAUKEE - Teenagers in Milwaukee will face a curfew this week, the mayor said, after two nights of violent protests over the fatal police shooting of a black man.
Mayor Tom Barrett said at a press conference there will be a 10 p.m. curfew for teenagers. How and where exactly in the city it will be enforced was not made clear.
CBS Milwaukee affiliate WDJT-TV reports Barrett said he is working with the district attorney to determine if they need to have more of a curfew tonight.
"There were groups of people traveling through the streets," Barrett said. "Those individuals are deliberately trying to damage Sherman Park and this city."
On Sunday evening, some two dozen officers in riot gear confronted a group who were throwing rocks and other objects at police near where Sylville K. Smith was fatally shot a day earlier.
Police say an 18-year-old Milwaukee man was seriously injured when he was shot during the late night protest. Officers used an armored vehicle to retrieve the injured man and take him to a hospital.
Officials say a total of 14 people were arrested at Sunday's protests, and four officers were injured. Despite Barrett saying outsiders "are deliberately trying to damage a great neighborhood in a great city," all those arrested Sunday were adults from Milwaukee.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker put the National Guard on standby for any repeat of violence. Protests were peaceful most of Sunday evening before the confrontation after 11 p.m.
Sunday night's disturbance was much less severe than the prior day's destruction. In addition to the many businesses that were burned to the ground Saturday night, 17 people were arrested and four police injured.
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Monday that "violence solves nothing," and he praised the local community for "stepping up."
Flynn and others have said the man whose death touched off the violent protests was shot after he turned toward an officer with a gun in his hand. Barrett said a still image pulled from the footage clearly showed a gun in 23-year-old Smith's hand as he fled a traffic stop Saturday.
Flynn declined to identify the officer who shot Smith but said he is black. The police chief said he wasn't sure what prompted the stop but described Smith's car as "behaving suspiciously."
After watching the officer's body camera footage, Flynn said the entire episode took about 25 seconds, from the start of the traffic stop until shots were fired. He said Smith ran "a few dozen feet" and turned toward the officer while holding a gun.
"It was in his hand. He was raising up with it," the chief said. He said the officer had told Smith to drop the gun and he did not do so. It was unclear how many rounds the officer fired. Smith was hit in the chest and arm, Flynn said.
Online court records showed multiple charges against Smith dating back to 2013. One was as minor as retail theft -- which was dismissed -- and other less serious offenses included speeding, driving without insurance, driving with a suspended license or having open intoxicants in a vehicle.
There were more serious charges. Smith was accused in a shooting last year and charged with recklessly endangering safety, a felony.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Smith was subsequently accused of pressuring the victim to recant statements that identified him as the gunman and was charged with trying to intimidate a witness. The charges were dropped because the victim recanted the identification and failed to appear in court, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern told the newspaper Sunday.
Smith also pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon in 2014.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said at a news conference that Smith had been arrested 13 times.
"He's got a bunch of drug arrests here, robbery, use of force," Clarke said.
But Smith was father to a 2-year-old toddler, too, his mother said.
"My son is gone due to the police killing my son," a distraught Mildred Haynes told the Journal Sentinel on Sunday. "I am lost."