Police shooting, protests put Ferguson back on edge

1Gina Gowey, of Ferguson, Mo., protests on West Florissant Ave., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown being shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
2A member of the St. Louis County Police Department takes cover at a protest in Ferguson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015.
3The one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson began with a march in his honor and ended with a protest that was interrupted by gunfire.
4People protest on West Florissant Ave., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo., on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown being shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
5St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar gestures during a news conference, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in Clayton, Mo.
6Belmar said a suspect fired on police Sunday during a protest on the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
7Police returned fire and the man was taken to a hospital, where Belmar said he was in surgery early Monday morning.
8Family, friends and supporters pause for a moment of silence at a memorial to Michael Brown, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
9Sunday marks one year since Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
10Police stand near a broken cash register in a parking lot after the front windows of a business were broken out along West Florissant Avenue, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
11Protesters march in the rain, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
12Members of the St. Louis County Police Department take cover at a protest in Ferguson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015.
13Police stand near a suspect in a parking lot after gunfire during a protest on the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
14St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said that plainclothes officers had been tracking the man, who they believed was armed, during the protest.
15Belmar said the man opened fire on police and was struck when the officers returned fire.
16The man was taken to a hospital, where Belmar said he was in surgery early Monday morning.
17A police officer questions a person near the site of a shooting in Ferguson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015.
18The gravesite of Michael Brown, bottom left, is marked with a piece of stone with "MB" painted on it inside St. Peter's Cemetery Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Normandy, Mo.
19Sunday marks one year since Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
20Protesters yell at police, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo., before shots were fired near the protest.
21St. Louis police arrest a protester outside the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in St. Louis.
22Protesters have been arrested after blocking the entrance to the St. Louis federal courthouse while calling for more aggressive U.S. government response to what they call racist law enforcement practices.
23Police patrol on Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
24Ferguson was a community on edge again Monday, a day after a protest marking the anniversary of Michael Brown's death was punctuated with gunshots.
25FERGUSON, Mo.
26Ferguson was a community on edge again Monday, a day after a protest marking the anniversary of Michael Brown's death was punctuated with gunshots and police critically wounded a black 18-year-old accused of opening fire on officers.
27Police, protesters and people who live and work in the St. Louis suburb were bracing for what another night of demonstrations along West Florissant Avenue might bring.
28The thoroughfare was the site of massive protests and rioting after Brown was fatally shot last year in a confrontation with a white Ferguson officer.
29"Of course I'm worried," said Sandy Sansevere, a retired health care worker who volunteers at the retail store operated by the nonprofit group I Love Ferguson, which was formed after Brown's death to promote the community.
30"What scares me are the guns."
31Hundreds of people had gathered by 9 p.m. Monday, chanting and holding signs.
32Officers made several arrests after demonstrators blocked a lane of traffic.
33Some threw water bottles and other debris at police.
34Earlier in the day, the father of the suspect who was shot called the police version of events "a bunch of lies."
35He said two girls who were with his son told him he was unarmed and had been drawn into a dispute involving two groups of young people.
36St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger declared a state of emergency, which authorizes county Police Chief Jon Belmar to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson.
37Protests spilled outside of Ferguson.
38Almost 60 protesters were arrested around midday Monday for blocking the entrance to the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis.
39Authorities planned to release them on a promise to appear later in court.
40Protesters later briefly blocked Interstate 70 during the late afternoon rush hour, with an additional undetermined number of arrests made.
41Among those arrested at the courthouse was scholar and civil rights activist Cornel West.
42That protest, like other commemoration events over the past few days, was largely peaceful and somber.
43But on Sunday, several hundred people gathered in the street on West Florissant, ignoring an officer on a bullhorn repeatedly warning them to get to the sidewalk or face arrest.
44Eventually, a few lobbed glass bottles and rocks at officers.
45One officer was hospitalized with cuts to the face after being hit with a rock.
46Two others had minor injuries after protesters sprayed them with pepper spray.
47As tensions escalated, several gunshots suddenly rang out from the area near a strip of stores, including some that had been looted moments earlier.
48Belmar believes the shots came from about six different shooters.
49What prompted the shooting wasn't clear, but Belmar said two groups had been feuding.
50The shots sent protesters and reporters running for cover.
51The shooters included the suspect, Tyrone Harris Jr., whom police had been watching out of concern that he was armed, Belmar said.
52During the gunfire, the suspect crossed the street and apparently spotted plainclothes officers arriving in an unmarked van with distinctive red and blue police lights, Belmar said.
53The suspect allegedly shot into the windshield of the van.
54The four officers in the van fired back, then pursued the suspect on foot.
55The suspect again fired on the officers when he became trapped in a fenced-in area, the chief said, and all four opened fire.
56Harris was in critical condition after surgery.
57Prosecutors 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.
58All 10 are felonies.
59All four officers in the van, each wearing protective vests, escaped injury.
60They were not wearing body cameras, Belmar said.
61Tyrone Harris Sr. told The Associated Press his son was a close friend of Michael Brown and was in Ferguson on Sunday night to pay respects.
62The elder Harris said his son got caught up in a dispute among two groups of young people and was "running for his life" after gunfire broke out.
63"My son was running to the police to ask for help, and he was shot," he said.
64"It's all a bunch of lies ... They're making my son look like a criminal."
65Online 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.
66A court hearing in that case is scheduled for Aug. 31.
67Belmar said the suspect who fired on officers had a semi-automatic 9 mm gun that was stolen last year from Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
68The police chief drew a distinction between the shooters and the protesters.
69"They were criminals," he said of those involved in gunfire.
70"They weren't protesters."
71Gov. Jay Nixon agreed, saying in a statement that such "reprehensible acts must not be allowed to silence the voices of peace and progress."
72Some protest groups said police were too quick to go into riot mode.
73Others questioned why plainclothes officers were part of the patrol.
74"After a year of protest and conversation around police accountability, having plainclothes officers without body cameras and proper identification in the protest setting leaves us with only the officer's account of the incident, which is clearly problematic," said Kayla Reed, a field organizer with the Organization of Black Struggle.
75Belmar said it is common to use plainclothes officers.
76In addition, there were more than 100 uniformed officers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Ferguson and St. Louis County police departments.
77Some protest leaders worried about how the latest police shooting - especially on a day honoring Brown - could escalate tensions.
78"It changes the equation," said Rebecca Ragland, an Episcopal priest who was part of a group that marched to the federal courthouse in St. Louis.
79"The way the police will respond now will be much more militaristic. It legitimizes a response from the police that's a lot more aggressive."
80John Gaskin III, a member of the NAACP national board from St. Louis, was more hopeful.
81"I don't believe there will be looting or rioting," he said.
82"That's not in my vocabulary. We have to have some faith."
83Michael Brown Sr., right, hugs his wife, Cal Brown, at the spot where his son, Michael Brown, was killed one year ago Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
84St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar speaks during a news conference, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in Clayton, Mo.
85Police form a line across West Florissant Ave. during a protest, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
86Protesters yell as police form a line across West Florissant Ave., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo., before shots were fired near the protest.
87A protester yells as police form a line across West Florissant Ave., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo., before shots were fired near the protest.
88Ferguson Interim Police Chief Andre Anderson, right, tries to calm the crowd after a shooting near a protest in Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Aug. 10, 2015.
89The one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson began with a march in his honor and ended with a protest that was interrupted by gunfire late Sunday night.
90Police take cover after gunfire near a protest in Ferguson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015.
91People come to the aid of a distraught woman after gunshots were fired near a protest in Ferguson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015.
92A crowd gathers along West Florissant Avenue, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.
93Crowds chant in the street along West Florissant Avenue, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo.