REUTERS – Street protests broke out on Monday night in the western part of the U.S. city of Philadelphia, injuring four police, after police shot and killed a Black man they said had been armed with a knife.
Footage on social media shows police beating protesters with batons as officers and demonstrators clashed in violent exchanges early Tuesday morning (October 27). A vehicle was also seen on fire late Monday night, with fire-fighters in attendance.
The violence is the latest in months of anti-racism protests across the United States since the May death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Four officers were hit with bricks when Monday’s protest outside a police station in Philadelphia turned violent and they had to be taken to hospital, broadcaster NBC said.
Earlier, a man identified by officials as Walter Wallace, 27, had approached two police officers who drew their guns after warning him to put down the knife, video of the afternoon’s shooting on social media showed.
The incident raised questions and was being investigated, Mayor Jim Kenny and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in separate statements.
Since the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, demonstrators have turned out nationwide to demand racial equality and an end to police brutality, with protests sometimes turning violent.
