Juvenile in custody in connection with deadly shootings during BLM protests
Third straight night of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin following shooting of unarmed man - NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports
KENOSHA, Wis. (KYMA, KECY/NBC News) - Illinois police arrested a juvenile Wednesday in connection with a pair of deadly shootings during a Black Live Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Cellphone video captured a young white man open fire on the largely Black crowd with a semi-automatic weapon. The shooting killed two people and injured a third.
The Antioch Police Department says it has identified, and arrested, that suspect. Officers say they took 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse into custody on suspicion of first-degree, intentional murder.
Antioch is about 15-miles from Kenosha, a city that's seen three straight nights of unrest since the shooting of Jacob Blake. The city's now littered with burned cars, blackened buildings, and damaged store fronts.
And now it's dealing with a different type of violence.
"Clear the area! shots fired! we don't want you up here! move!"
Police cleared the streets after reports of gunshots. Those shots left two people dead, and one wounded. But protestors ignored a curfew, and authorities deployed tear gas.
"This is the third straight night of violent protest here and this community is on edge" said NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez.
"This is pathetic for-- to happen in our country and in the state of Wisconsin, and it's just anarchist going around taking advantage of the situation." said Kenosha resident Tenoch Martinez.
The chaos came despite Jacob Blake's family's pleas for peaceful protests.
"They shot my son seven times, seven times like he didn't matter. but my son matters." said Jacob Blake, Sr.
His family now demands officers involved in Sunday's shooting, which was captured on cell phone video, be fired. They want the one who shot Blake in the back arrested.
"He was not treated like a human that day. He was treated like some foreign object that didn't belong." said Zietha Blake, Jacob's sister.
His family now says the 29-year-old's spinal cord is severed. He's paralyzed from the waist down, although doctors aren't sure it's permanent.
Blake's mother tells us she'd last spoken to Jacob Sunday morning as he prepared to celebrate his son's eighth birthday. The boy was in the backseat when his father was shot.
"When you first walked into that hospital room. And you saw your son. What went through your head.?" asks Gutierrez
"So many things. I was just so elated just simply being able to see him and he's alive." answers Julia Jackson, Blake's mother.
The Justice Department is now assisting state authorities with the investigation. Wisconsin's Department of Justice says the officers are on administrative leave, and are "fully cooperating."
Kenosha police officers don't wear body cameras, but the Blake family wants any dash cam footage, or any other video of the incident, released.