Weekend protests broke out after a Milwaukee, Wisconsin man was shot after fleeing a vehicle during a traffic stop by police at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13.
According to FOX 6, the suspect has been identified as Sylville Smith. The 23-year-old was in a vehicle with a male passenger when the two fled from police on foot near the Sherman Park neighborhood.
Smith was allegedly armed with a semiautomatic handgun when a Black police officer shot him.
“One man was armed with a handgun. An officer confronted that man in a gangway, and the officer fired shots and that man is deceased,” said Milwaukee Police Assistant Chief William Jessup.
Since the Saturday shooting, the city has been rocked by riots, with local businesses being set ablaze. Local politicians have come out to dismiss the weekend violence.
Milwaukee Alderman Khalif Rainey spoke Sunday about the issues that created the igniting powder keg over the last two days.
“This city has watched this particular neighborhood — through the entire summer — be a powder keg,” Rainey says in the news conference. “From incidents in the park, from a murder in the gas station, from a shooting by the gas station owner at children — this entire community has sat back and witnessed how Milwaukee, Wisconsin has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country.”
Many Facebook users agreed with his assessment of the piling social and racial issues in the city.
However, other users went to racist code-words and petty insults to dismiss the plight of African-American residents.
