NBA leads sport boycott after US officer shot Jacob Blake at Kenosha

The white police officer who shot black 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back, triggering a new wave of violent protests in America, was named by US officials on Wednesday, as NBA players led an unprecedented wave of sports world walkouts against racism and police brutality.

Anger and grief have built since Sunday, when a seven-year veteran of the police force in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot Blake seven times at point-blank range while three of his children watched in the Midwestern city.

The US Department of Justice announced late Wednesday it was opening a civil rights investigation into Blake's shooting.

Local law enforcement had maintained silence as nightly protests descended into violence, and two people were shot dead when armed vigilantes clashed with demonstrators on Tuesday night. A 17-year-old teenager has since been arrested for murder.

But on Wednesday the Wisconsin Department of Justice gave its first official account of Blake's shooting, saying he had a knife "in his possession" when officer Rusten Sheskey fired his gun into his back.

It was not clear from the statement if the knife, recovered from inside the car, was in Blake's hands when he was shot or at any other point during the altercation. He survived but may be paralyzed for life.

Officers were sent to a residence in Kenosha following a domestic disturbance and during the incident "attempted to arrest" Blake, unsuccessfully tasering him, the statement said.

Read: 17-year-old arrested after two shot dead in protest-hit US city of Kenosha

"Mr Blake walked around his vehicle, opened the driver's side door, and leaned forward. While holding onto Mr Blake's shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon 7 times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr Blake's back," it said.

Subsequently, the statement said, agents "recovered a knife from the driver's side floorboard of Mr Blake's vehicle."

Blake's shooting comes just three months after another African American man, George Floyd, suffocated beneath the knee of a white officer in Minneapolis, igniting the most widespread civil unrest in the country in decades.

On Wednesday frustrated NBA players took a new stand as the Milwaukee Bucks, whose home base is just to the north of Kenosha, boycotted their game in protest at the latest shooting.

"Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball," players said in a statement.

The move prompted the NBA to cancel all three playoff games set for Wednesday, and fixtures scheduled for Thursday were also in doubt.

The boycott spread to baseball, with the Milwaukee Brewers refusing to play their game against the Cincinnati Reds, and tennis, with two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka abruptly pulling out of a match -- leading the ATP/WTA Western & Southern Open in New York to be suspended until Friday.

Major League Soccer and Women's NBA games were also postponed.

Also Read: Naomi Osaka withdraws from WTA semi-final over Blake shooting

Kenosha city officials ordered a 7.00 pm to 7.00 am curfew through Sunday in hopes of bringing calm after Tuesday's deadly violence, which occurred as mostly white armed vigilantes flocked to the site of protests, saying they were there to defend private property.

Videos showed one of the vigilantes shooting at protesters with an assault rifle. The man then walks down the street freely, gun slung across his chest, while protesters scatter and police vehicles drive past him.

Two men were killed and one wounded in the arm in the shooting.

Police in Antioch, Illinois, southwest of Kenosha, said Wednesday they had arrested a 17-year-old on murder charges following the killings.

The suspect has been identified as Kyle Rittenhouse, a local youth whose social media accounts reportedly pointed at an affinity for guns and law enforcement.

Facebook said it had removed the accounts of the teen suspect, along with pages of a local militia in Kenosha.

"We've designated this shooting as a mass murder and have removed the shooter's accounts from Facebook and Instagram," the internet titan told AFP.

Two hours after the curfew began Wednesday night some 200 Black Lives Matter protesters marched through the city of Kenosha. A helicopter buzzed overhead, but there was no sign of police.

Read more at: Clashes at United States protest over police shooting of black man

"I defy the curfew to stand for justice," 33-year-old hotel worker Nicola Marie told AFP.

"I am very nervous that there is no police around. I don't really know what's going to happen," she added.

President Donald Trump earlier announced he was deploying federal law enforcement and National Guard troops to Kenosha "to restore law and order" -- although local officials said they already had hundreds of state police, some 250 National Guard troops, and FBI and federal marshals helping with the situation.

Trump's comments made clear the violence would also be fodder for the ongoing presidential race, with the election just over two months away.

His campaign has portrayed anti-police protests in numerous cities as an extreme leftist threat to the country.

Democratic rival Joe Biden meanwhile said he has spoken to Blake's family, and promised them "justice."

"What I saw on that video makes me sick," Biden said of the shooting footage. "I told them justice must and will be done."