VIOLENT NIGHT

Philadelphia Erupts Over Fatal Police Shooting of Walter Wallace, 30 Police Reported Hurt

Protests and violent eruptions came overnight, just hours after police shot and killed 27-year-old Black man Walter Wallace.

Angry protests erupted in West Philadelphia overnight, hours after police shot and killed 27-year-old Black man Walter Wallace. According to NBC Philadelphia, at least 30 police officers were hurt in the unrest—including one female 56-year-old sergeant who broke her leg when she was hit by a pickup truck that sped through a line of officers. That incident was caught on a livestream. Police also reported that stores were broken into, multiple cars were set on fire, and five law-enforcement vehicles were vandalized. More than 30 people were arrested. The protests came hours Wallace’s death. Investigators said Wallace was armed with a knife when he approached two officers, but video shows that he was more than 10 feet away when the officers opened fire as his mother tried to stop him. “Why didn’t they use a Taser?” his father, Walter Wallace Sr., asked aloud to Philadelphia Inquirer reporters outside a residence on the block. “His mother was trying to defuse the situation.”