Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 1991 series of confrontations in Riga Latvia resulted from tensions between an independence movement and pro-Soviet forces following the restoration of independence declaration on the 4th of May 1990. Public dissatisfaction grew due to the war in Afghanistan and the Chernobyl disaster starting in April 1986 while Soviet reforms exposed crimes kept secret for decades.
Citizens including families with women elderly members and children built physical barriers throughout the city after a call by Latvian radio at 4:45 on the 13th of January. The Popular Front coordinated supplies while Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis held regular meetings with commanders overseeing individual barricades.
The first fatality occurred when driver Roberts Mūrnieks was shot in the back of the head at 4:45 pm on the 16th of January 1991. He died from his injury at 6:50 pm becoming the first recorded death during the barricades.
On the 20th of January 1991 OMON attacked the Latvian Interior Ministry killing two policemen named Vladimirs Gomanovičs and Sergejs Konoņenko alongside camera operator Andris Slapiņš. A seventeen-year-old schoolboy named Edijs Riekstiņš also lost his life during the assault while Gvido Zvaigzne sustained fatal injuries dying later on the 5th of February.
Around 32,000 people have received the Commemorative Medal for Participants of the Barricades of 1991 awarded since 1996 by state authorities. This medal recognizes participation or support efforts related to the events that took place in January 1991.