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CHICAGO, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Gunshots were fired, businesses were set ablaze, people were detained and police vehicles damaged after a confrontation between police and protestors turned violent Saturday night in Milwaukee in the north-central U.S. state of Wisconsin.
A vehicle and some businesses, including a gas station, a bank, a beauty supply company and an auto parts store, were reportedly set on fire as some 200 protestors gathered near the scene of the shooting, a predominately African-American part of the city, and confronted with the police for about an hour in the evening.
An officer was hit in the head by a brick thrown through the windows of a police car. Witnesses say gun fires were heard as police officers wearing riot gear tried to disperse the protesters.
According to Edward Flynn, the Police Chief, seventeen people have been detained and four police officers were treated for injuries and released from hospital.
The confrontation was sparked by the police's fatal shooting of Sylville K. Smith, a 23-year-old black man, when he was trying to flee from two police officers who had stopped his car.
The police officer, who was not hurt, was placed on administrative leave while an investigation into his conduct has been launched. Flynn said the police officer was also black.
The second suspect, also a 23-year-old man, has been in custody.
In a news briefing at the scene shortly after the shooting, Milwaukee Police Assistant Chief Bill Jessup said the man who was killed carried a stolen handgun and has "a lengthy arrest record," which he failed to specify.
Mayor Tom Barrett, appealing for restraint and calm, acknowledged that the neighborhood where the shooting took place has been affected by violence in the recent past.
"There are a lot of really, really good people who live in this area ... and can't stand this violence," Barrett said.
By early Sunday, the police said they were restoring order to the area and reducing deployments.
Although it was not immediately clear whether the police officers handled the case properly, the incident was preceded by several police-involved shootings across the United States in which the use of force by police is questioned.
On July 17, three gunmen killed three police officers and wounded several others in a shooting incident in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One gunman was shot dead by the police, and the other two are still on the run.
On July 7, a 25-year-old sniper Micah Johnson ambushed and killed five police officers and wounded seven others and two civilians in downtown Dallas, Texas. He was shot dead by the police.
On July 5-6, two black men were shot dead by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, which sparked angry protests by African Americans across the nation against police brutality and racial discrimination.
Earlier this year, a native American woman was killed by an Arizona police officer. The shooting has prompted protests in recent months by Native American activists.
