The mother of a US black man that has been left paralysed after being shot by police in the back several times has given a speech full of faith and racial unity.
Jacob Blake was shot multiple times by police on Sunday in an incident said to have left him paralysed from the waist down.
A lawyer for Blake, 29, said it would "take a miracle" for him to walk again after he was allegedly shot in the back by officers in front of his three children in the city of Kenosha.
Ben Crump said the bullets severed his client's spinal cord and shattered his vertebrae.
The incident was captured on video and reignited the fury over police treatment of black people in the US. Two people have died after gunfire broke out during protests on Tuesday.
Wisconsin's governor has called for calm and declared a state of emergency.
On Tuesday, Blake's mother, Julia Jackson, encouraged people to stop the destruction that has been a part of some of the protests over her son's incident.
She said during a press conference that she's praying for God to heal the United States from racial division.
"We need healing. As I pray for my son's healing, physically, emotionally, and spiritually I also have been praying even before this for the healing of our country," she said.
"God has placed each and every one of us in this country because he wanted us to be here. Clearly you can see by now that I have beautiful brown skin, but take a look at your hand. And whatever shade it is, it is beautiful as well. How dare we hate what we are?
"We are humans. God did not make one type of tree, or flower, or fish or horse or grass or rock. How dare you ask him to make one type of human that looks just like you?
"I'm not talking to just Caucasian people. I am talking to everyone, white, black, Japanese, Chinese, red, brown.
"No one is superior to the other. The only supreme being is God Himself. Please let's begin to pray for healing for our nation. We are the United States. Have we been united? Do you understand what's going to happen when we fall, because a house that is against each other cannot stand? To all the police officers, I'm praying for you and your families."
The officers involved have not been named and the Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating.
A London pastor has said Christians should not only be praying for God to bring racial unity in the world, but they should also be protesting for it.
Pastor Okusi, who leads Eternity Church London in Croydon, told Premier Christian News that Christians should not become desensitised to police brutality.
"It's just shockingly bad. It's wicked. It's evil. I hope justice does its duty and punishes those responsible.
"There needs to be a sense of deep theological understanding that God hates injustice. He hates the persecution of the poor and the marginalized, whether its widows, whether it's orphans, whether it's unarmed black men, God hates that persecution and oppression of the weak."
"Certainly we should be praying, that should be our first course of action. But we need to put legs to our prayers. As Christians we don't just believe in praying, I believe there should be protest. I believe there should be very clear protest in every form possible to register that this is unacceptable."
Listen to Premier's full interview with Pastor Clement Okusi here:
