Police release video they say shows Ferguson suspect with gun

1FERGUSON, Mo.
2St. Louis County Police released a video on Tuesday that they said shows a suspect, who has been accused of firing on police, drawing a pistol from his pants during protests in strife-torn Ferguson, Missouri.
3Tyrone Harris, 18, was shot by police and is in critical condition.
4He has been charged with four counts of assault on law enforcement, five counts of armed criminal action, and one count of shooting at a vehicle.
5Bond for Harris, who is black, was set at $250,000.
6The incident occurred on Sunday in the St. Louis suburb where largely peaceful demonstrations over police shootings of unarmed black men have been punctuated by violence.
7The 13-second video taken from a surveillance camera at an insurance agency shows a group of people milling about during Sunday night's protests marking the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer.
8During the video, shots are fired and a young man can be seen brandishing what looks like a pistol.
9St. Louis County Police said: "The video shows Harris grab a handgun out of his waistband once shots are fired during the protest in the West Florissant corridor."
10Harris's father said his son did not have a gun.
11"He was running for his ... life because someone was shooting at him," Tyrone Harris, Sr. said in a telephone interview from his St. Louis-area home before the video was released.
12According to St. Louis city court records, the younger Harris was free on bail awaiting trial on charges of stealing a motor vehicle, theft of a firearm and resisting arrest.
13A state of emergency that was declared on Monday for the Ferguson area was still in effect on Tuesday.
14Protesters have been marching and staging acts of civil disobedience to mark the anniversary of the death of Brown, 18.
15His death was one in a series of police killings of unarmed black men in U.S. cities including New York, Baltimore, North Charleston, South Carolina and Cincinnati that renewed the debate on race and justice and led to the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
16In Los Angeles on Tuesday, a group of protesters from the "Black Lives Matter" movement disrupted a police commission meeting on the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed black man Ezell Ford, who was killed during a struggle with a police officer.
17After darkness fell, a line of riot-gear clad police rushed toward a few dozen demonstrators who had briefly blocked a street that has been the site of frequent protests since Brown's death.
18Officers pushed the crowd back onto the sidewalk.
19"I don't condone violence, but I don't condemn it either. Some of these kids are just fed up," said St. Louis resident Micheal Torrence, 33.
20Torrence and several other demonstrators in the area said they were not swayed by the police video that appears to show Harris with a gun.
21Torrence said the fact that the officers involved were dressed in plainclothes colored his impressions of the incident: "It makes a difference. He may have been shooting at a different group and didn't know they were police."
22Brian Fletcher, a former mayor of Ferguson now on the city council, said he believed that violence the city has experienced over the past year was coming to an end.
23"If this is the worst that's going to happen, then we'll survive," said Fletcher, standing in the "I Love Ferguson" store he opened in October to raise money for city businesses and institutions that were damaged in riots last year.
24Sunday night's violence included a drive-by shooting and several instances of rocks and bottles being hurled at police.
25Rallies over the past few days have been mostly peaceful, but late on Monday police carrying shields rushed a crowd of protesters prompting many to scream and run.
26Protesters who were arrested were suspected of throwing frozen water bottles and rocks at police and other offenses, according to the St. Louis County Police Department.
27Adding to the tension, four white men carrying military-style rifles and sidearms, who said they are part of a group called "Oath Keepers," patrolled Ferguson's streets.
28The group describes itself as an association of current and former U.S. soldiers and police who aim to protect the U.S. Constitution.
29The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights organization, has described the "Oath Keepers" as a "fiercely anti-government, militaristic group."
30The St. Louis County police chief condemned their appearance in Ferguson.
31People are pictured outside Solo Insurance Services in St. Louis, Missouri in this still image capture from August 9, 2015 surveillance video footage in this August 11, 2015 St. Louis County Police Department handout photo.
32A police officer holds his weapon as a protester is detained (rear) in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015.
33Police hold a protester who was detained in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015.
34Protesters hold up signs on top of a closed business in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015.
35St Louis County police officers arrest an anti-police demonstrator in Ferguson, Missouri August 11, 2015.
36Police take a mug shot of a protester who was detained in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015.
37Police detain a protester in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015.
38St Louis County police officers interact with anti-police demonstrators during protests in Ferguson, Missouri August 10, 2015.
39Anti-police demonstrators scream as they march in protest in Ferguson, Missouri August 10, 2015.
40An anti-police demonstrator marches in protest in Ferguson, Missouri August 10, 2015.
41Two anti-police demonstrators walk away from a line of St Louis County police officers during protests in Ferguson, Missouri August 11, 2015.
42St Louis County police officers arrest an anti-police demonstrator in Ferguson, Missouri August 10, 2015.
43Anti-police demonstrators gesture at a line of St Louis County police officers during protests in Ferguson, Missouri August 11, 2015.