KENOSHA: A black man shot several times by police may be permanently paralyzed, his family said Tuesday, after protesters burned buildings and tore down street lamps in a second night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the incident.

Jacob Blake was undergoing surgery to try to repair nerve damage, his cousin said.

"He's paralyzed from the waist down... He hasn't woken up yet but they're saying it's a 50/50 chance he'll walk away," Herman Poster told the Daily Beast news site.

It was the most recent in a series of allegedly unjustified police shootings and killings of African Americans that have sparked outrage in the United States.

Blake was shot Sunday by a white policeman while getting into a car that held his three children after trying to break up a domestic dispute, according to civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Blake family.

Jacob Blake's father, also named Jacob, told the Chicago Sun Times "What justified all those shots?... What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?"

A bystander video shows police shooting seven times at Blake, 29, at close range as he tried to enter the car.

Officials say police had been called to a domestic disturbance, but have not said why the two officers had their guns pulled.

Late Monday police wearing military-type gear fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who snubbed a citywide curfew to demonstrate over Blake's shooting.

The protesters, chanting "No justice, no peace" and "Say his name -- Jacob Blake," shot fireworks and lobbed water bottles at the police.

Sherese Lott, 37, said she attended with her two daughters and a cousin to protest "because we want change."

She questioned why the officers did not tackle or Taser him if they wanted to arrest Blake, and said police need to be held accountable.

"If I killed someone I'd be convicted and regarded as a murderer. I think it should be the same for the police."

A couple, who only gave their names as Michelle and Kalvin, had brought their seven-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son with them.

"I want my kids to see how change happens and am here so nothing like this ever happens to them," Michelle said.