Philadelphia Uprising: National Guard Deployed in Angry Walter Wallace Police Killing Protest–New York Also Erupts

killed in hail of bullets

Police, seconds before shooting Wallace to death. YouTube screen capture.

The Pennsylvania National Guard was deployed Tuesday night as angry protests continue in Philadelphia following the shooting death Monday of Walter Wallace Jr. by police.

Several arrests were made and officers were seen beating protestors in Philadelphia with batons and tackling others to arrest them. Protests also broke out in New York City because of the killing. 

Wallace, 27, reportedly suffered from mental health problems and his family had called for an ambulance to take him to a hospital, but the police showed up instead. Wallace, who had been surrounded by some family members, at one point walked around a vehicle and was confronted by two police officers. The officers then reportedly fired between 10 to 14 times.

This has become a common incident, where officers responding to a call for mental-health related incidents end up shooting a Black person to death. It’s as if officers have no training that includes shooting to render a person harmless, such as shooting in the leg, for example. Wallace was reportedly holding a knife—which was already in his hand by the time police got there, meaning he did not retrieve them from somewhere to attack the police. In fact seconds before the killing, family members were shown trying to restrain Wallace. 

The killing was recorded by a pedestrianSeveral business establishments were destroyed by the angry demonstrators. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the officers who killed George Floyd, including Derek Chauvin, were not fired and arrested until after enraged protestors targeted businesses for attack. Then the City acted very quickly against the officers involved in the killing.

In Philadelphia, the same outrage has now brought demonstrators to the streets following the killing of Wallace. His father, Walter Wallace Sr., has called for calm. More than 1,000 demonstrators came out to the streets, the Philadelphia police department reported. 

An investigation into the shooting has been ordered by the Police commissioner Danielle M. Outlaw. The District attorney, Larry Krasner, also said his office will investigate the shooting.

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