As the first peaceful night of protests in Kenosha was drawing to a close Wednesday, a group of demonstrators gathered for a moment of silence near the spot where one of two men were gunned down earlier in the week, allegedly by an armed vigilante.
“Anthony Huber is one of the most amazing people to walk this (profanity) Earth,” his girlfriend Hannah Gittings told the crowd, nearly crumpling to the ground as she spoke.
She and other friends of Huber said he was killed when he confronted a gunman with his skateboard during violent demonstrations Tuesday night. Another man was also killed and a third was wounded.
“He took down an armed gunman with nothing but his (profanity) skateboard,” Gittings said.
Earlier in the day at Basik Skate Park, friends and skaters chalked messages on the ramps paying homage to Huber, who was a respected skateboarder in their circle.
“Anthony Huber is a hero,” one message read.
Police have not released details of how Huber and the other two were shot. They have so far charged a 17-year-old from Antioch with murder in connection with the shootings, which occurred on the third straight night of violent protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Witness accounts and video indicate the gunman first shot someone at a car lot just before midnight, then jogged away, fell in the street, and opened fire again as members of the crowd closed in on him.
“I just killed somebody,” the gunman, carrying a semi-automatic rifle, could be heard saying at one point.
On a GoFundMe page she has set up, Gittings said that Huber “selflessly tried to aid in taking down an attacker when he was gunned down. … Anthony decided to use his voice and stand up for a cause that meant something.”
Another GoFundMe page set up by Huber’s family said he was “gunned down in the streets of Kenosha while he was defending a cause he firmly believed in. He was witty and a very awesome skateboarder. He was fighting for a cause and he wasn’t a rioter, he was a protester and a defender. He did all he could to have people (accept) him for who he was and we all only wanted the best for him.”
Gittings said Huber had a stepdaughter.
After the vigil for Huber, a man led marchers away. “Where you going?” someone asked as they stood at 64th Street and Sheridan Road. “Waking up the rich white people!” he said. The crowd followed him east.
“Out of your house, into the streets,” the protesters repeated while a car caravan honked behind them at 68th Street and 5th Avenue. The large houses on the block were largely dark and quiet.
The protests late Wednesday and early Thursday were mostly peaceful, in contrast to the violent clashes that marked earlier nights of protests. There were no groups patrolling with long guns as they had on previous nights, and protesters stayed away from a courthouse that had been the site of standoffs with law enforcement.
In the wake of the killings, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers authorized the deployment of 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha, doubling the number of troops in the city of 100,000 midway between Milwaukee and Chicago.
The governor’s office said he was working with other states to bring in additional National Guard members and law officers. Authorities also announced a 7 p.m. curfew, though protesters ignored it again Wednesday.
Meanwhile, authorities released a few more details about the police shooting that sparked the unrest.
Blake, 29, was shot in the back seven times by a Kenosha police office on Sunday as Blake leaned into his SUV, three of his children seated inside.
On Wednesday, three days after the shooting, state authorities identified the officer who shot Blake as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department. Sheskey shot Blake while holding onto his shirt after officers first unsuccessfully used a Taser, the Wisconsin Justice Department said. State agents later recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard of the vehicle, the department said.
The man who said he made the widely circulated cellphone video of Blake’s shooting has said he heard officers yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.
State authorities did not say Blake threatened anyone with the knife.
The Associated Press contributed.
