Kenosha has been rocked by protests since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake in the back as he walked away from two officers and opened his car door.
US President Donald Trump has announced the deployment of additional federal forces to the protest-hit Midwestern city of Kenosha after two people were shot dead in violence overnight.
"We will NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets," Trump tweeted on Wednesday, a day after demonstrations over the police shooting of a Black man gave way to clashes between protesters and armed vigilantes.
"TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!"
Trump made the announcement after speaking with Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who a day earlier announced he was authorising increased National Guard support for the county to 250 members.
Teenager arrested in homicide case
Meanwhile, a 17-year-old was arrested and charged with homicide in connection with gunfire that killed two people and wounded a third during protests over the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, officials said.
The lakeside city of Kenosha has been rocked by civil unrest since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake, 29, in the back at close range.
The incident, captured on video, has reignited protests over racism and police use of force in the United States.
The shooting of two people was reported 0445 GMT on Wednesday in an area where protests have taken place, Kenosha police Lieutenant Joseph Nosalik said in a news release.
Social media videos showed chaotic scenes of people running and screaming amid a volley of gunfire and others tending to gunshot wounds.
The bloodshed followed a night of skirmishes that had appeared to turn calm, settling down after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who defied a curfew.
The shootings were initially reported by the New York Times and other US media.
— Kenosha Police Dept. (@KenoshaPolice) August 26, 2020
Videos on social media
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said one victim had been shot in the head and another in the chest late on Tuesday, just before midnight, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Beth didn’t know where the other person was shot, but his or her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening..
Social media videos posted early on Wednesday showed a gun battle involving civilians, with several people rushing a man with a long gun who apparently had been knocked to the ground.
The video shows him firing at the people rushing towards him, one of whom falls to the ground. Other shots are heard in the background.
"Stay down, stay down!" someone yells.
"Keep going this way," a person says, apparently trying to guide others to safety as shots are fired.
Another social media video shows a man lying between parked cars with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, and several people rush to his aid.
A third video shows a man with a severe arm wound sitting on the ground who is tended to by a man with a long gun as police approach.
Throughout the protests, several people have been carrying rifles, whether slung over their shoulder or at the ready while standing guard outside business to protect them from looters or arsonists.
READ MORE: Jacob Blake left paralysed by police shooting, mother calls for calm
An armed man is seen tending to another man, who appears to have been wounded after clashes between armed civilians in Kenosha, Wisconsin where crowds had gathered to protest the police shooting of a Black man. August 26, 2020.
Jacob Blake shooting
Kenosha has been rocked by protests since Sunday, when police shot Jacob Blake in the back as he walked away from two officers and opened his car door, according to a bystander video that went viral. Three of his young sons were in the car, witnesses said.
Blake, 29, was left paralysed and "fighting for his life," his family and lawyers said on Tuesday, hours before the latest round of civil unrest in the lakefront town between Milwaukee and Chicago.
Sunday's shooting occurred three months after the May 25 death of a Black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, who was pinned to the street under the knee of a white police officer, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality and racism within the US criminal justice system.
Police arrested more than 60 people on Tuesday in a protest march in Louisville, Kentucky, organized for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed in March by police officers who burst into her apartment.
Police in Portland, Oregon, declared a gathering of hundreds of anti-racism protesters outside City Hall as a riot, ordering the crowd to disperse or face arrest.
Protestors face off with police outside the County Courthouse during demonstrations against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 2020.
Kenosha protests
Police and protesters skirmished in Kenosha on Tuesday night and early on Wednesday.
Officers in riot gear fired rubber bullets, tear gas and flash-bang rounds to push back demonstrators who defied a dawn-to-dusk curfew and gathered outside a courthouse and adjacent park.
There were no apparent fires as there had been the previous two nights, destroying several businesses.
The night appeared to have turned calm, but then the gunfire erupted around midnight.
In the video of the man with a head wound, one bystander takes off his shirt to stop the bleeding, but has trouble finding the wound, until other people comes to their aid.
"Put pressure, put pressure," one person says.
"You shot him?" someone asks.
"I didn't," comes the response.
Others implore the wounded man to keep his eyes open and tell him he will be OK.
"You've got to keep him alive," someone says.
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