Protesters burn US flags after fatal shooting of black man by police
Protesters in the US state of Washington have set American flags on fire as tensions boiled over into unrest following a vigil for an African-American man who was shot and killed by police.
Hundreds of people attended a vigil Friday night for Kevin Peterson, who was fatally shot by Clark County Sheriff’s Office deputies the night before in a city in south-western Washington State.
Police offered unclear accounts Friday of what led the deputies to shoot and kill Peterson, 21, along Highway 99.
At an abrupt press conference, Sheriff Chuck Atkins said Peterson was under a drug-related investigation and fired a gun at deputies who chased him.
A separate team of officers investigating the shooting did not mention the suspect opening fire on police.
At the vigil, some protesters held signs reading, “Honk for Black lives. White silence is violence” and “Scream his name.”
Nearby, tensions flared between left- and rightwing protesters. Some armed demonstrators gathered near a building they told reporters they were protecting.
Hundreds of protesters later marched through downtown Vancouver as crowds began to disperse from the site of the vigil.
The protesters shattered windows and burned US flags.
Federal law enforcement officers in riot gear surrounded a building and warned the demonstrators that they would be arrested if caught trespassing on federal property.
Authorities declared an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse. At least one person was arrested.
Police-involved shootings and killings of black men in the hands of white police officers have led to mass protests across the country in recent years, giving birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The killing of George Floyd by white officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, triggered months of anti-racism protests across major US cities.
In Portland, protesters remained on the streets practically every night for several months, prompting President Donald Trump to deploy federal agents to quash the unrest.
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