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”.
