'It's a kick in the gut,' Ferguson leader says of violence, shooting

Ferguson,  Mo.,  again found itself in turmoil Monday after overnight violence -- including the police shooting of a man who officials say opened fire on officers -- marred a demonstration marking the first anniversary of the death of Michael Brown.

In separate incidents, police said St. Louis County detectives shot and critically wounded a man after a gun battle, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter was beaten and robbed, and one police officer was hit in the face with a rock and taken to a hospital.

Also, two teenagers were shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting near Brown’s memorial in Ferguson early Monday morning, police officials said.

 “This is a sad turn of events, and I thank the brave and dedicated law enforcement officers who worked into the early morning hours to protect citizens, businesses as well as peaceful protesters and members of the media,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday morning.

“Those who terrorize communities with gunfire and commit violence against police officers are criminals, and their reprehensible acts must not be allowed to silence the voices of peace and progress,” Nixon said.

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger issued a state of emergency Monday, a move that authorizes county Police Chief Jon Belmar to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson.

Anniversary protests continued Monday, a year after Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of 18-year-old Brown sparked a national protest movement.

Several demonstrators were peacefully arrested at midday during a sit-in protest outside the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis, which was ringed by law-enforcement officials. Reporters at the scene said that the professor and philosopher Cornel West as well as prominent Black Lives Matter activists DeRay Mckesson and Johnetta Elzie were among those taken into custody.

One local official expressed unease about the violence that emerged from Sunday night’s protest, which brought a sense of déjà vu to many onlookers who remembered many previous nights over the last year marred by sporadic gunfire and violence.

“It’s a kick in the gut,” said Patricia Bynes, the Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson Township who has been active in protests since last year. She said some troublemakers have used the protests as a staging ground to settle their own disputes in recent months.

“People are starting to use the protests as a reason to shoot at one another over whatever their little beef is,” Bynes told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

"How dare they use it as an opportunity to shoot at each other,” Bynes said. “People all over this country and especially this community have been doing a lot of work, community work, outreach, development, trying to get engaged … it’s beyond frustrating.”

The trouble began later Sunday evening when a crowd of demonstrators, after braving a rain storm, gathered on Ferguson’s West Florissant Avenue.

Belmar said in an early morning news conference that officers earlier during the protests had eyed a suspect in the crowd they suspected was armed, along with three or four others who appeared to be with him.

Then a gun battle broke out around 11:10 p.m. Sunday, sending bystanders scurrying for cover. A hail of gunfire erupted, possibly 40 to 50 shots over a period of 45 seconds that appeared to be an exchange between two groups, Belmar said.

Meanwhile, he said, a group of plainclothes detectives in an unmarked sport utility vehicle with police lights were tracking the original suspect, who had crossed the street after the shooting.

“I think he was afraid he was going to be shot, and I think that’s why he crossed the road,” the police chief said.

The man – whom officials have since been identified as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris -- opened fire at the SUV, striking the windshield four to five times, as well as the hood, Belmar said. The detectives returned fire from inside the vehicle and the suspect fled behind a building as more shots were fired.

Once behind the building, he was in a fenced-in area with “nowhere to go,” Belmar said, and “engaged the officers.”

All four detectives fired on the suspect and he collapsed, he said.

“It is truly a tragedy,” Belmar said. “There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that we don’t have peace that prevails. I don’t know how else to say that.”

Ferguson activist Tony Rice said that when he ran over to the scene of the shooting, he saw officers standing over a handcuffed black male, later identified as Harris.

"The body couldn't have been on the ground for more than a minute before I got there," Rice told the Los Angeles Times in a telephone interview. "I saw him breathing. I saw him moving."

In videos he uploaded to Twitter, Rice grows passionate and begs officers to call for medical attention.

Rice said that as he continued to plead with an officer ordering him to move away from the scene, he was briefly detained by police, but was released after about 20 minutes.

The man appeared to be alive when he was put into an ambulance, Rice said.

Harris was in critical condition midday Monday when St. Louis County police announced that he had been charged with four counts of first-degree assault on law enforcement, five counts of armed criminal action, and one count of shooting at a vehicle. He had a stolen 9-millimeter Sig Sauer handgun, Belmar said.

Harris was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 cash-only bond.

His father, also named Tyrone Harris, told the television station that his son was in the intensive care unit after being shot several times. 

The detectives, who authorities said have experience on the police force ranging from six to 12 years, have been placed on administrative leave.

Afterward, police said, they searched in vain through the crowd for possibly six people who also had fired weapons in the shootout several minutes earlier.

“There were several people shooting. There were several rounds shot,” Belmar told reporters. “There were probably six different shooters on the other side of the street.”

Belmar said the prosecuting attorney would likely be asked to determine whether the shooting by police was justified.

The department released photos showing what it said were two unmarked police vehicles peppered with several bullet holes.

Belmar asked members of the public to come forward with information and videos to help determine who was shooting in the crowd.

“My prayer is that we can move forward without the violence that unfortunately been associated with this,” he said. "The stakes are very high here.”

 

After the gun battle, one police officer was injured by a flying rock, one of several missiles hurled at officers during protests that became increasingly chaotic as police moved in to respond to reports of weapons in the crowd.

Earlier in the evening, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Paul Hampel, who was reporting on the protest, was beaten and robbed by several attackers and taken to a hospital for his injuries, police said.

The drive-by shooting near Brown’s memorial on Canfield Drive happened later, at 2:15 a.m., according to the St. Louis County Police Department.

“The two male victims, 17 and 19 years of age, stated they were walking on the sidewalk near the Michael Brown memorial in the Canfield Apartments when an unknown black male wearing a red hooded sweatshirt started shooting at them from the rear passenger side of an unknown vehicle,” the department said in a statement early Monday. “The 17-year-old victim was shot once in the chest/shoulder, and the 19-year-old victim was shot once in the chest.”

Both were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Ferguson has been the scene of regular protests since Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot to death on Aug. 9, 2014, during a confrontation with Ferguson police Officer Wilson, who is white.

The case spawned a protest movement and led to a number of changes in Ferguson’s Police Department and city government, but the city has remained the scene of periodic turbulence and enduring racial division.

Earlier Sunday, Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., led a march through town, and hundreds of people observed 4 1/2 minutes of silence to commemorate the 4 1/2 hours that Brown’s body lay in the street after he was shot.

Activists continued to protest Monday, and dozens of protesters reportedly gathered in downtown St. Louis. Near St. Louis’ iconic arch, activists lifted a black-and-white banner that read, “RACISM STILL LIVES HERE #FIGHTBACK”.