Chaos Break Out In Chicago After Man Fatally Shot By Police

Protesters in Chicago are demanding answers after the fatal shooting of a man by police prompted violent confrontations in the Illinois city.

“The whole damn system is guilty as hell,” dozens chanted on Saturday just hours after police shot and killed the man in the South Shore neighbourhood of Chicago.

The city’s police patrol chief Fred Waller told reporters late on Saturday that the man who was killed was shot after police officers on foot tried to question him because “the bulge around his waistband” suggested he was armed. The man became combative and eventually broke free from the officers, Waller said.

“They thought he appeared to be reaching for a weapon, which he did have a weapon on him, and the officers tragically shot him,” Waller told reporters, adding that police recovered a semi-automatic weapon.

The man, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Almost immediately after the shooting, a crowd of onlookers and activists descended on the scene. Video circulating on social media shows tense confrontations between police and protesters.

Local journalist Nader Issa, who reports for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote on Twitter that at one point the situation “severely escalated when Chicago Police officers moved their line forward”.

He added: “Officers hit multiple protesters with batons, and protesters punched officers back.”

Source: aljazeera.com