PROTESTS erupted in Chicago’s South Side over the weekend after police fatally shot a black man.

Riot police confronted hundreds of demonstrating residents who shouted at them: “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?”

Others yelled “murderers” and police said rocks and bottles were thrown and four people arrested. 

Chicago police patrol chief Fred Waller said several officers were lightly injured and some police cars damaged when protesters jumped on the bonnets. 

Chicago Sun Times reporter Nader Issa, covering the protest, said officers knocked his phone out of his hand and shoved him off balance, adding that he had been holding up a press badge and saying: “I’m a reporter” at the time.

Police challenged the victim as they felt he “exhibited the characteristics of an armed person,” according to a statement from the force.

He had not been formally identified by police when the Morning Star went to press, but activist group Black Youth Project 100 said he was Harith “Snoop” Augustus, a well-liked local barber and a father.

When approached by police “he started flailing and swinging away, trying to make an escape,” the force claimed.

Mr Waller said that officers “tragically shot him” because “they thought he appeared to be reaching for a weapon, which he did have a weapon on him.” Witnesses say he was shot by a female officer whose colleagues immediately took her away by car.

A police statement says a gun and two ammunition magazines were recovered from the scene, although some protesters said the victim had been unarmed.

Confidence in Chicago’s police force has been hit by the killing of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old shot 16 times by officer Jason Van Dyke in 2015. Police claims that he had attacked them were undermined by dash-cam footage showing he had been walking away when fired on.

A year-long investigation by the US Justice Department found a pattern of excessive force and violation of civil rights by Chicago police.

The Washington Post’s fatal force database records 548 people killed by police so far this year in the US.