By Staff, Agencies

Three people were shot, one of them fatally, as gunfire broke out on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, early Wednesday on the third straight day of unrest sparked by the police shooting of a Black man, the New York Times reported, citing law enforcement.

Social media video showed a gun battle among civilians, with several people rushing a man with a long gun who apparently had been knocked to the ground. The video shows him firing at the people rushing towards him, one of whom falls to the ground. Several other shots are heard in the background.

Earlier police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters angered by the latest shooting of a Black man, whose family said he was left paralyzed after being shot multiple times in the back by a white police officer.

Police in riot gear skirmished after dark with about 200 demonstrators defying a dawn-to-dusk curfew outside a court and an adjacent park in the center of Kenosha, a city of about 100,000 people in southeastern Wisconsin.

Several military-style armored patrol vehicles were seen maneuvering around the court building, firing tear gas at the crowd, many of whom hurled water bottles, firecrackers and other objects back at police. When police ordered protesters to disperse, the crowd responded by chanting "Black lives matter". Police then fired rubber bullets.

The disturbances came hours after Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency and promised to deploy additional National Guard troops in a bid to restore order in the town, while the mother Jacob Blake Jr, the man who was shot, publicly appealed for calm.

Blake, 29, a father of six, was struck from behind at point-blank range in a hail of bullets fired on Sunday by police who were following him with guns drawn as he walked away from officers to his car and opened a door to the vehicle.

Three of his young sons - aged three, five and eight - were sitting inside the car and saw their father being shot, according to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents the Blake family.