Milwaukee Braced for 3rd Night of Unrest After Police Shooting

MILWAUKEE, WI — Police are prepared for a third night of trouble in Milwaukee after two successive nights of fires, looting and gunshots following the fatal police shooting of an armed man.

Monday night, demonstrators engaged in a standoff with police just before 8 p.m. after officers took a man into custody. Within a half our, the standoff ended. Riot police moved away from the area.

Mayor Tom Barrett, at a press briefing just before 11 p.m., said six arrests were made Monday and no major property damage has taken place. Eleven police officer have been injured since the chaos began, however, as they've been hit with rocks, bricks and shattered glass from police car windows.

Barrett announced a citywide curfew for teens earlier in the day. Everyone under the age of 18 needed to be off the streets by 10 p.m. Monday. Sheriff David Clarke ordered Sherman Park closed from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.

If needed, 123 members of the Wisconsin National Guard are in Milwaukee and ready to be deployed on orders from the police chief.

The unrest follows the shooting of Sylville K. Smith, 23, who ran from police on Saturday during a traffic stop. Smith was carrying a loaded gun stolen from Waukesha with 23 rounds. He was shot twice by a police officer.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn blamed Sunday's violence on agitators from Chicago. Flynn said the Chicago activists representing the Revolutionary Communist Party are the ones who “started to cause problems” Sunday night.

Protesters threw rocks, bricks, and glass bottles at police on Sunday night. A shooting victim was rescued by officers and whisked to a hospital in an armored vehicle. Later another 18-year-old man would be rushed to hospital with a serious gunshot wound to the neck, and a police officer was taken to hospital after a rock was thrown through the windshield of his squad car. Police made 14 arrests Sunday night, and three police cars were damaged, police said.

Revolutionary Communist Party co-founder Carl Dix confirmed to WISN-TV that Chicago activists did travel to Milwaukee to protest. He denied that they instigated violence. His organization issued a statement, calling the actions "righteous rebellion":

This rebellion is right on time. Despite police wearing body cameras, despite Department of Justice reports that expose the racism and abuse in police departments across the country, despite commission meetings and talk of reforms, police continue to kill people again and again. And the whole system continues to exonerate the killer cops when their murderous deeds get dragged into the light of day.

Also Sunday, Sherelle Smith, the sister of the slain man called on people not to destroy their own neighborhood.

“I lost my brother. I can’t get him back. Never. Never. That’s pain. I can’t look him in the eye no more,” she said. “At the end of the day, acting out ain’t gonna solve it. Ain’t gonna solve nothing for Sylville. The city went crazy (Saturday) night over Syville. We tired of it. We tired.

“Burning down s--- ain’t gonna help nothin’!” she continued. “You’re burning down s--- we need in our community. Take that s--- to the suburbs! Burn that s--- down!”

On Saturday night, a gas station and several cars were destroyed by fire, as was a bank, a beauty shop, an auto parts store and a grocery store. ATF investigators were on the scene and gathered spent shell casings from the parking lot on Monday. During the chaos, many shots were fired in the air and, at times, at police. Seventeen people were arrested Saturday night.

The fatal police shooting Saturday afternoon set off the violence, which began with people attacking a police car and smashing the windows. A police officer was injured by a flying brick thrown through a squad car window, police said, and the officer was taken to a hospital for treatment. As the night wore on, fires, shooting and looting ensued.

The shooting of Smith took place around 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Two officers stopped two suspects driving in the 3200 block of North 44th Street.

Shortly after stopping the vehicle, both occupants fled on foot, one armed with a semiautomatic handgun. Officers pursued the suspects and shot Smith in a yard in the same area, according to police, after he refused orders to drop his weapon.

Smith was shot in the chest and the arm, authorities said, contrary to rumors he had been shot in the back.

Mayor Barrett said he has seen a still image from the officer's body camera that shows Smith holding a gun.

The officer, a 24-year-old African-American male with six years of service with the MPD, was not injured. He was placed on administrative duty. An investigation will be led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation. An autopsy conducted Monday confirmed that Smith was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the chest.

"I mean, there was virtually no time between the officer unhooking his seat belt, turning on his body camera, getting out of the car and immediately he was in a foot chase. That foot chase went maybe a few dozen feet before he encountered this individual in a fenced yard," Flynn said at a press conference. "The individual did turn toward the officer with the firearm in his hand. You can't tell when the officer discharges his firearm."

Barrett said he would push for release of the body-camera video as soon as possible.

Flynn said the officer is staying with relatives out of town. Police are concerned for his safety, Flynn said.

Smith's father, Patrick Smith, told WITI-TV he shoulders some of the blame for his son's actions:

“I had to blame myself for a lot of things too because your hero is your dad and I played a very big part in my family’s role model for them. Being on the street, doing things of the street life: Entertaining, drug dealing and pimping and they’re looking at their dad like ‘he’s doing all these things.’ I got out of jail two months ago, but I’ve been going back and forth in jail and they see those things so I’d like to apologize to my kids because this is the role model they look up to. When they see the wrong role model, this is what you get.”

Gov. Scott Walker came to Milwaukee Monday and spoke with members of the Guard. He also spoke to reporters about the violence.

“If you want to address poverty, if you want to address living conditions, if you want to address housing — all those things are legitimate issues people have frustrations about," Walker said. "But if you’ve got neighborhoods where businesses are burned down, where people are afraid to live and work, it’s only going to make those problems more difficult."

Gary Mulheron, who owns A to Z Wholesale, one of the businesses destroyed in the fires, wiped tears from his eyes as he told WISN that he hasn't been able to get to his a soft-drink wholesale business to see the damage. The area remains off limits, surrounded by crime-scene tape.

"I was pretty strong until today," he told the news station on Monday. "I said a little prayer, you know?"

The BP gas station that was torched Saturday night along with his business was one of his best customers, Mulheron said.

This report is developing and will be updated.