Five anti-racism protesters were wounded by members of their own activist groups on Saturday in a pair of apparently accidental shootings.
Three members of the Not F---ing Around Coalition, an all-black militia, were shot by their comrade on Saturday afternoon ahead of a march in Louisville, Kentucky, to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, according to the police.
- Several hundred NFAC members were inspecting their firearms when the gun of a female "trainee" was accidentally discharged, according to the group's leader, Atlanta-based rapper and DJ John Johnson, aka "Grand Master Jay."
- The victims were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the Louisville Metro Police Department said.
- The police released surveillance footage of the incident and said they were investigating what happened; they said there were no suspects.
- No other violence took place at the protest, which was also attended by members of the Black Lives Matter movement and by armed members of the right-wing "Three Percenter" militia.
Two other protesters were shot and injured on Saturday evening by a fellow participant in a march in Aurora, Colorado, against the death of Elijah McClain.
- The protesters were blocking the interstate, which had consequently been closed, when a Jeep drove through the crowd, footage posted online showed.
- The vehicle did not appear to hit anyone, but someone fired at it and struck the two protesters, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Aurora Police Department.
- The police said the Jeep was towed and they were investigating the shooting; they released photos of a man they said was a person of interest.
- Protesters later gathered at police headquarters, where they tore down down a surrounding fence, vandalized and burned buildings and threw objects and fireworks at officers, the police said.
- The crowd eventually dispersed on orders from the police; no arrests were made.
Here's a video of a vehicle that was shot at by rioters in Aurora, CO today.
— Brett MacDonald (@TweetBrettMac) July 26, 2020
A couple notes: the jeep was driving down an open lane, it seems to have a flat tire from rioters damaging it previously, the rioters begin shooting at it after it passes them by without hitting anyone pic.twitter.com/wPWzFYIuqE
None of the victims in either of the shootings have been identified.
A protester was also killed in an intentional shooting on Saturday night during a confrontation with a motorist at a Black Lives Matter rally outside the state Capitol in Austin, Texas, authorities said.
- Another shooting took place on Sunday night in Portland, Oregon, near protests that turned into a riot.
The spate of weekend gun violence followed two months of often-destructive nationwide protests over allegedly systemic racism in policing and in American society.
- As of July 5, at least 30 people had died during the protests, the large majority in shooting that did not involve police, according to a tally by Wikipedia based on news reports.
- Some of the violence has been self-inflicted: A 29-year-old man blew himself up while participating in looting in Philadelphia on the night of June 2; and another man shot himself in the foot while protesting outside the police station in Florissant, Missouri; officers provided first aid.
By contrast, anti-lockdown protests earlier this year, which saw often-armed conservatives in many states demand an easing of coronavirus-related restrictions, led to zero shootings.
