After three nights of violence over the police shooting of a black man, heavy police deployment brought relative calm to the Midwestern US city of Kenosha on early Thursday.

29-year-old Jacob Blake, a black, was shot seven times by the police in his back while he was with his children on Sunday. Ever since the incident, the city has witnessed violent protests.

NBA stars also protested against racism.

A night after two protestors were shot dead, allegedly by a teen vigilante with an assault rifle, hundreds of demonstrators snubbed a curfew to march six miles (10 kilometers) through the Wisconsin city’s downtown area chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace,” without trouble.

Vice President Mike Pence, addressing the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, rejected allegations of endemic police racism and painted the protests as a threat to Americans, condemning “the violence and chaos engulfing cities across this country.”

NBA and WNBA players also forced postponement of playoff games after the Milwaukee Bucks, whose home base is close to Kenosha, walked out.

Read:Police officer who shot African-American Jacob Blake named

“Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball,” Bucks players said in a statement.

The Milwaukee baseball team, the Brewers, also refused to play. 

Meanwhile, a “Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” protest will be oragnised in Washington for Friday by rights activists Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, along with other civic leaders and the families of Jacob Blake and other black victims of police violence.

Activists continued to demand action against the Kenosha police officer who shot Blake.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has named the accused officer as seven-year Kenosha force veteran Rusten Sheskey. Officials said police were attempting to arrest Blake, though not specifying any charges, and that an attempt to tase him had failed. They added that a knife had been found in his car.

The federal Department of Justice meanwhile announced an FBI civil rights investigation into Blake’s shooting, which has left him paralyzed from waist-down.

Late Wednesday in Kenosha protestors said they were determined to keep marching for justice and police reform. “We are targets. I’m big and black, they see me as an enemy all the time, everywhere I go,” said a musician who goes by the name Big Homie Trail.