A driver drove through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Austin, Texas, then shot and killed an armed protester who confronted him, according to police and reports.
The unidentified victim was believed to “be carrying a rifle and approached [the] suspect’s vehicle ”just before 10 pm Saturday, Austin police spokeswoman Katrina Ratliff told reporters at the scene.
The car had accelerated through the crowd of protesters and crashed into an orange barrier before stopping, witness Michael Capochiano told the statesman.
“There were people around the car, screaming, and people who seemed scared,” Capochiano told the newspaper.
The armed protester approached, then a shot rang out and he “fell to the ground,” Capochiano said.
The video posted on social media at the same time showed protesters screaming and fleeing when the first five shots were heard, followed by three others after a brief pause, according to KVUE.
Police who supervised the rally found the victim with gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to a local hospital, Ratliff said.
The driver quickly drove away, according to witnesses, before being detained and is “cooperating with officers,” Ratliff said, saying he is being treated as a homicide.
The deadly shooting came as violence erupted again in protests across the country on Saturday, with Seattle police declaring a riot and deploying sudden explosions and pepper spray to try to clear an area that was previously considered the “protest zone busy. “
Portland, Oregon, authorities also declared riots Sunday morning after protesters breached a fence surrounding the city’s federal court building, where US agents were stationed.
In Colorado, a car passed through protesters in the suburban Denver suburb of Aurora, while at least one person was shot by a protester, according to authorities. The unidentified victim was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition.
Protesters also smashed court windows and a fire started in an office, police said. An illegal assembly was declared and the police ordered the protesters to leave the area, authorities said.
Protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man in Minnesota who died after a white officer held him to the ground with a knee to his neck, have also revealed other cases of fatal police violence. .
In Colorado, protesters have been drawing attention to the death of Elijah McClain, who was detained by police while walking down an Aurora street in August 2019 after a 911 call denounced him as a suspect.
The police placed him in a stranglehold and paramedics administered 500 milligrams of ketamine, a sedative, to calm him. He went into cardiac arrest, then he was declared brain dead and life support was taken from him.
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