ATLANTA (AP) - Eight people were arrested Tuesday night after an Atlanta police precinct was damaged during a protest over the police shooting of a black Wisconsin man, authorities said.
Protesters gathered at Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta around 8 p.m. to show their support for Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old who was shot multiple times - apparently in the back while three of his children looked on - by a Kenosha police officer Sunday.
A family attorney on Tuesday said Blake was paralyzed, and it would “take a miracle” for him to walk again. Kenosha police have said little about what happened, other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute.
Atlanta police told news outlets that the group marched from the park to the Zone 5 precinct, taking with them police barricades and scaffolding from a nearby construction site and placing them in the roadway.
Police said a window was shattered at the precinct and someone spray-painted a wall. According to the station, a police officer stepped in to stop the spray-painter and a crowd of protesters swarmed around them and protesters threw fireworks at officers. Officers in riot gear then stepped in and broke up the crowd.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Officer TaSheena Brown confirmed that some damage had been done to the precinct.
It’s unclear if those arrested would be charged with a crime.
Cellphone video of the Blake shooting spread across social media, igniting new protests over racial injustice. The shooting comes just three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
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A reference to Blake being unarmed has been removed from the story; Kenosha police haven’t confirmed whether Blake had a weapon.
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