LOUISVILLE, Ky. (NewsNation Now) — Unrest continues for the third night after a Kentucky grand jury announced their decision in the March killing of Breonna Taylor Wednesday.
At 9 p.m. ET, more than 100 people gathered outside the First Unitarian Church, with some yelling “say her name, Breonna Taylor” and “You can’t stop the revolution.” Protesters also gathered in the church.
The church grounds had offered a brief refuge to demonstrators after a curfew the previous night.
NewsNation was live in Louisville where they said one person was throwing golf balls from an apartment onto the relatively peaceful protest.
At 8 p.m. ET, dozens of demonstrators blocked by police from marching in Louisville, Kentucky, later regrouped on a downtown plaza that’s been a focal point of protests over Taylor’s death. A leader in the group then urged those remaining to go home.
About 100 people gathered in downtown Jefferson Square on Friday evening. Some chanted “No justice, no peace” and then one of the leaders urged remaining demonstrators to disband, saying “go to a safe place or go home.” Some, but not all, left.
Just before 7 p.m. ET the Louisville Metro Police declared an unlawful assembly due to protestors blocking the flow of traffic from Jefferson Square Park to the NuLu neighborhood on Main Street.
“Two flashbang rounds were deployed in the air above the crowd to get the crowd’s attention, at which time directions were given for the crowd to disperse and move east,” LMPD said. “Crowds did begin to disperse, with many walking back to the park.”
At least two people were arrested. Information on charges is not immediately available.
A curfew of 9 p.m. was in place Friday evening and throughout the weekend.
It was the third straight night of protests in Louisville since a grand jury decided Wednesday not to charge any police officers for Taylor’s death. Those protests ensue across the country. The Black woman was killed in March during a police raid gone wrong.
Kentucky State Rep. Attica Scott was arrested and charged Thursday evening with first-degree rioting, a felony, and two misdemeanor counts: unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. The Black lawmaker on Friday called the charges “ludicrous” and said those arrested were “traumatized” by Louisville police.
While protesting again Friday night, Scott told a reporter her arrest was terrifying.
She was live-streaming at the time, and saying: “They’re going to kill us, they want to kill us,” and she believed that.
During Thursday night’s unrest police made 24 arrests and responded to 15 burglaries. Authorities say the protesters broke windows at a restaurant, damaged city buses, tried to set a fire and threw a flare into the street.
“The marchers continued through the downtown causing damage at various locations including buses and breaking windows and tossing a flare into the main library,” said Louisville Metro Police Interim Chief Robert Schroeder.
There is concern that rioters and militia groups from out of town could come to Louisville this weekend. The police chief said some of the militia groups think they are coming to help the police, but he says they are actually making the situation worse.
Unrest continued throughout the country. In Los Angeles, activists gathered in Hollywood for the third night of protests. Hundreds had protested and marched in downtown LA on Wednesday, leading to some vandalism. On Thursday, at least one person was injured after two vehicles drove through a crowd of demonstrators in the Hollywood, where an estimated 300 people were protesting.
