2 People Were Killed During Jacob Blake Protests in Kenosha Last Night

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.

Three people were shot, two of them fatally, during the third night of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake on Sunday. Local police are searching for a man armed with a long gun, according to local reports.

At least two of the shootings happened shortly before midnight, according to Kenosha police, and reportedly happened outside of a gas station that armed men were supposedly protecting from potential looting. One victim was shot in the head and another was shot in the chest, Sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. 

Video of the shooting shows a man with a long gun running down the street before tripping and falling. As people begin to surround him, several shots are fired as he points the gun at them from a sitting position. At least one person is left lying in the street. 

As police vehicles flood the scene, someone is heard shouting: “That dude right here just shot all of them down there.”

WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT

Another video posted to Twitter showed someone who was shot in the arm crying out for a medic, but it’s unclear when and where he was shot. 

The FBI is assisting the Kenosha Police Department with the shooting investigation, Beth told the Journal-Sentinel. Of the shooter, Beth said: “I feel very confident we’ll have him in a very short time.” It’s so far unclear if multiple people fired shots.

Protester Devin Scott, 19, witnessed the shooting and told the Chicago Tribune what he saw.

“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, and I told my friend, that’s not fireworks,” Scott said.

“And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone! And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him and then he started shooting again.” 

Scott said he tried to help a man who was shot, holding him in his arms until help arrived.

“I didn’t know what to do and then this woman starts performing CPR. There was no pulse. I don’t think he made it,” he said.

The shootings happened after another round of demonstrations near the Kenosha County Courthouse, which has been the site of major protests since police shot Blake seven times in the back on Sunday night. 

Governor Tony Evers doubled the National Guard presence in the city on Tuesday to 250, and Beth said about 250 law enforcement officers were on hand as well. After the city’s emergency curfew expired at 8 p.m., police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd to disperse them. Most protesters left, according to local reports, but others went elsewhere, including the area where the shootings occurred around 11:45 p.m. 

Blake underwent surgery on Tuesday for his injuries, with more to come. His family and attorneys said Tuesday he was at least partially paralyzed, though it’s so far unclear if the paralysis will be permanent. 

"Because those bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered some of his vertebrae, it is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again," Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, told reporters Tuesday. Cover: A protester shouts at police during clashes outside the Kenosha County Courthouse late Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis. Protests continued following the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. (AP Photo/David Goldman)