Philadelphia police on Monday fatally shot a 27-year-old Black man who they said was armed with a knife, touching off protests and violent clashes hours later in which authorities said more than two dozen officers were injured.
Mayor Jim Kenney said the shooting, which was partly captured on video by a bystander, raised "difficult questions that must be answered," and the police commissioner promised an investigation.
Protesters marched through west Philadelphia late Monday night, and video posted on social media appeared to show the police clashing with demonstrators. Thirty police officers were treated for cuts and bruises, caused in most cases by bricks, rocks, and debris thrown by protesters, Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department, said Tuesday. A sergeant was treated at a hospital for a broken leg after she was hit by a pickup truck, he said.
The shooting took place around 4 p.m., as police responded to a report of a man armed with a knife. Video that was posted on social media shows the man, whom authorities later identified as Walter Wallace Jr., walking into the street as people yell and two police officers aim their guns at him.
At one point, Wallace, who is several feet away from the officers in the video, walks toward them as they quickly move backward. The camera points down toward the ground as about a dozen shots are heard. The camera quickly moves up as Wallace falls to the ground.
Gripp told The Philadelphia Inquirer that officers had ordered Wallace to drop the knife and that he had "advanced toward the officers." Chief Inspector Frank Vanore of the Philadelphia police said at a news conference Tuesday that he did not know how many times Wallace had been shot.
"It's all part of the active investigation," he said.
Eight police vehicles and one Fire Department vehicle were vandalized, the city's police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw, said, adding that one of the police vehicles had been set on fire. She said 91 people were arrested during the civil unrest that took place from Monday into Tuesday morning. There were 11 assaults on police officers and there were 76 arrests for commercial burglaries, including three that were committed with guns, she said.
Anticipating the possibility of more civil unrest Tuesday night, Outlaw said the department would increase its presence in key locations around the city.