One killed in shooting at Black Lives Matter protest in Texan capital

AUSTIN • One person was killed when several shots were fired amid a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Austin, Texas, on Saturday, said the authorities.

Footage posted during a Facebook Live stream showed the moment when several shots rang out in the Texas capital as about 100 people marched and chanted, "Fists up! Fight back!"

Austin police and emergency medical services said on Twitter that one person was killed during the shooting.

Initial reports indicate that the suspect was carrying a rifle and shot at the victim, who was in his car, the police told a briefing. The suspect has been detained, they said.

Protests against racism and police brutality were sparked worldwide following the May killing of unarmed African American George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis.

Mr Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him.

Meanwhile, a group of heavily armed black protesters marched through Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday, demanding justice for Ms Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in March by police officers who burst into her apartment.

Scores of the demonstrators, carrying semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and clad in black paramilitary gear, walked in formation to a fenced-off intersection where they were separated by the police from a smaller group of armed counter-protesters.

The black militia, dubbed NFAC, wants justice for Ms Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician who died in a hail of gunfire when drug investigators bearing a "no-knock" warrant entered her Louisville home four months ago. No criminal charges have been filed against any of the three police officers involved in the case.

REUTERS