A 19-year-old boy was shot dead in Detroit on Friday evening during one of the many protests held across the country in response to the death of African-American George Floyd.
The shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m., according to the Associated Press. A man behind the wheel of a 4x4 fired shots near a crowd of protesters, Detroit police spokesman Sergeant Nicole Kirkwood said on Saturday. No information was given on the identity of the victim, who died in hospital. The assailant is still on the run.
By Friday evening, the protests had spread to numerous American cities, from Detroit to Atlanta via New York, Houston and the capital Washington. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Monday during a violent arrest rekindled the racial wounds of the United States.
In Detroit, it was the first night of protest. Dozens of arrests were made and riot police said many of them were not Detroit residents, WJBK-TV reported. A commander thus was allegedly struck with a stone and hospitalized.
Across the United States, protesters denounced police blunders and racial disparities. Above all, they demanded justice for George Floyd who, according to a video that has gone viral, seems to have been suffocated by the police.
Police officer dismissed and charged
White policeman Derek Chauvin who, on this film, keeps his knee for long minutes on the neck of the forties, was arrested Friday and charged with "manslaughter" and "cruel and dangerous act causing death".
The victim's family hailed this development as a first step on "the road to justice", but judged it "late" and insufficient. “We want a charge of intentional homicide with premeditation. And we want to see the three other agents implicated in the tragedy arrested, she said in a statement. The latter were immediately dismissed, like Derek Chauvin, but are not yet the subject of any prosecution.
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VIDEO. Four police officers dismissed after the death of a black man during his arrest
To face the gravity of the situation, military reinforcements will be brought to 1700 in Minneapolis and in the neighboring city of Saint-Paul, by Saturday evening, announced in the night Major-General Jon A Jensen, who heads the Minnesota National Guard.
Donald Trump "asked the Pentagon to put army units on alert so that they could eventually intervene in Minneapolis," he added, adding that "it is prudent to expand the options available" to secure the city.
The American president, who has repeatedly denounced a "tragic" crime, has also attacked "thugs". "The looting will be immediately greeted by bullets," he added in a tweet, which the social network decided to report as an "apology for violence".
In a diametrically opposite tone, his democratic predecessor Barack Obama said he shared "the distress" of millions of black Americans, for whom "to be treated differently on the basis of race is tragically, painfully and rageously normal ".