Shot fired during dueling Israel-Palestine protests in Illinois
A man shot off his gun at dueling Israel-Palestine protests in Illinois Sunday, the same day a driver drove into a crowd of Palestine supporters in Minnesota as tense demonstrations over the Israel-Palestine conflict gripped parts of the country Sunday.
While nearly 20 New York City demonstrators were arrested during an anti-Israel protest Saturday in Brooklyn, rallies in Illinois, Minnesota and Oregon were marred with violent outbursts over the weekend, according to authorities in those states.
During a pro-Israel event in Skokie, Illinois, about 200 pro-Palestinian protesters showed up to demonstrate, Lincolnwood police said. Outside the event across the street, a man was confronted by a number of people in a town center mall when he pulled out a firearm and shot it into the air Sunday afternoon, Lincolnwood police said in a press release.
The man was quickly arrested and no one was injured.
At the same protest, a person was hit by a vehicle in a hit-and-run in a separate incident, though the victim only required treatment at the scene, according to Lincolnwood police.
Authorities did not make clear in the press release which protesters were involved in the incidents.
Additional officers were called in during the event because of “several disturbances escalating outside” of it, police added.
At least 15 pro-Palestinian protesters were also pepper sprayed, including a police officer, a spokesperson for the US Palestine Community Network Chicago chapter told Fox 32.
In Minneapolis, a driver allegedly drove through pro-Palestinian protesters who were blocking traffic Sunday, according to reports.
Though the rally was on a pedestrian bridge in the city, some protesters spilled onto nearby streets and blocked cars from passing through, Fox 9 reported.
A vehicle drove through the crowd around 3:20 p.m., police said, according to the station.
The car was stopped after a crowd of demonstrators surrounded it before it drove off, Minnesota Public Radio reported, citing footage. When the car was stopped again, the driver appeared to lunge at them with a knife or box cutter, the news outlet reported.
No injuries were reported and police said no arrests have been made.
A day earlier, on the west coast, a man was arrested after police said he fired a splatter ball gun at protesters during a pro-Palestinian rally, KEZI reported.
During the march in Eugene, Jonathan Wisbey stopped a pickup truck, blocking the crowd before an argument began, police reportedly said.
As police approached the situation, a protester slashed one of Wisbey’s tires. He then got out of his car and allegedly shot a splatter ball gun – which fires water gel beads – into the crowd, police said, according to the news outlet.
A couple protesters pulled handguns in response, but officers confronted those who were armed and took them into custody without further incident, police reportedly said.
Wisbey is facing charges of menacing, second-degree disorderly conduct and first-degree bias.
Hostility between Israel and Palestine supporters has skyrocketed since the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion that killed 1,400 people in the Jewish nation and ongoing Israeli airstrikes that have claimed the lives of 4,651 people in Gaza, according to its health ministry.
The escalating tensions have spilled into the US through dueling protests, violent hate crimes and debates on college campuses — with one of the ugliest illustrations of the hate occurring in Chicago. A Windy City landlord was charged with hate crimes after he allegedly stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy 26 times, killing him.
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