4th night of Ferguson protests brings confrontation, arrests

1St. Louis County police makes arrests along West Florissant Avenue on Aug. 10, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
2The city was on edge again Monday, a day after a protest marking the anniversary of Michael Brown's death was punctuated with gunfire and one man was seriously wounded.
3Police officers and protesters face off along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 10, 2015.
4Protests in suburb of St. Louis on the anniversary of Michael Brown's death.
5Police arrested nearly two dozen people in Ferguson during a protest that stretched into early Tuesday marking the anniversary of the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, although there was no repeat of the violence that scarred weekend demonstrations.
6There were no shots fired and no burglaries, looting or property damage during the protest along West Florissant Avenue, county police spokesman Shawn McGuire said.
7The St. Louis suburb thoroughfare was the focus of months of massive protests and sometimes violent unrest last summer after the killing of Brown by a Ferguson police officer.
8A sense of dread returned to the St. Louis area as demonstrations continued Monday and officials declared a state of emergency, fearing another spiral of violence could shatter the riot-scarred area's fragile recovery.
9But on Monday night, no smoke or tear gas was used, and no police or civilians reported injuries, McGuire said in a statement.
10By 1 a.m., the crowd and police were heading home.
11McGuire said approximately 23 arrests were made, though police were still confirming official totals.
12Late Sunday, a protest in the same area was interrupted by gunfire and a police shooting that left an 18-year-old suspect critically injured.
13The violence set Ferguson on edge and had protest leaders worried that tensions could escalate.
14St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger declared a state of emergency that authorized county police Chief Jon Belmar to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson.
15Early Monday evening, hundreds of protesters were chanting, beating drums and carrying signs.
16When some in the group moved into a traffic lane, officers in riot gear forced people out of the street.
17Some demonstrators threw water bottles and other debris at officers.
18"They're not going to take the street tonight," Belmar told The Associated Press: "That's not going to happen."
19Protests also cropped up outside Ferguson.
20Almost 60 people, including scholar and civil rights activist Cornel West, were arrested around midday Monday for blocking the entrance to the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis.
21Another group later briefly blocked Interstate 70 during the late afternoon rush hour, with an additional 64 arrests, according to McGuire.
22Ferguson resident and military veteran Hershel Myers Jr., 46, criticized the police response as aggressive and unnecessary.
23At the Sunday night demonstration, tensions escalated after several hundred people gathered in the street, ignoring repeated warnings to get to the sidewalk or face arrest.
24Several gunshots rang out from an area near a strip of stores, including some that had been looted moments earlier.
25The shots sent protesters and reporters running for cover.
26Belmar said he believed there were six gunmen, including 18-year-old Tyrone Harris Jr., who the police chief said opened fire on officers.
27Police had been watching Harris during the protest out of concern that he was armed, he said.
28During the gunfire, Harris crossed the street and apparently spotted plainclothes officers arriving in an unmarked van with distinctive red and blue police lights, Belmar said.
29Police said the suspect shot into the windshield of the van.
30The four officers in the van fired back, then pursued him on foot.
31The suspect again fired on the officers when he became trapped in a fenced-in area, Belmar said, and all four opened fire.
32Harris was in critical condition after surgery Monday.
33Prosecutors announced 10 charges against him - five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and a firearms charge.
34All 10 are felonies.
35The officers in the van were wearing protective vests and escaped injury.
36They were not wearing body cameras, Belmar said.
37Harris' father called the police version of events "a bunch of lies."
38Tyrone Harris Sr. told The Associated Press that two girls who were with his son told him the 18-year-old was unarmed.
39They said he had been drawn into a dispute involving two groups of young people and was "running for his life" after the gunfire broke out.
40He said his son was a close friend of Michael Brown and was in Ferguson on Sunday night to pay respects.
41"My son was running to the police to ask for help, and he was shot," Harris said.
42"It's all a bunch of lies. ... They're making my son look like a criminal."
43Online court records show that Tyrone Harris Jr. was charged in November with stealing a motor vehicle and a gun, as well as resisting arrest by fleeing.
44A court hearing in that case is scheduled for Aug. 31.
45Belmar said the suspect who fired on officers used a stolen semi-automatic 9 mm gun.