News24.com | Police shooting, protests put Ferguson back on edge

1St Louis County Police make an arrest along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Mo.
2Ferguson - Ferguson was a community on edge again on 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.
3Police, protesters and people who live and work in the St. Louis suburb were bracing for what nightfall might bring following more violence along West Florissant Avenue, the same thoroughfare that was the site of massive protests and rioting after Brown was fatally shot last year in a confrontation with a Ferguson officer.
4"Of course I'm worried," said Sandy Sansevere, a retired health care worker who volunteers at the retail store operated by the non-profit group I Love Ferguson, which was formed after Brown's death, to promote the community.
5"What scares me are the guns."
6Michael Brown was a black 18-year-old who was killed by a white Ferguson police officer, touching off a national debate over police treatment of minorities and sparked the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
7Several hundred people had gathered along West Florissant by 21:00 on Monday, chanting and holding signs.
8There were no apparent signs of conflict.
9Earlier in the day, the father of the suspect who was shot called the police version of events "a bunch of lies."
10He 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.
11St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger declared a state of emergency, which authorises county Police Chief Jon Belmar to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson.
12Protests spilled outside of Ferguson.
13Almost 60 protesters were arrested around midday on Monday for blocking the entrance to the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis.
14Authorities planned to release them on a promise to appear later in court.
15Protesters later briefly blocked Interstate 70 during the late afternoon rush hour, with an additional undetermined number of arrests made.
16Among those arrested at the courthouse was scholar and civil rights activist Cornel West.
17That protest, like other commemoration events over the past few days, was largely peaceful and sombre.
18But 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.
19Eventually, a few lobbed glass bottles and rocks at officers.
20One officer was hospitalised with cuts to the face after being hit with a rock.
21Two others had minor injuries after protesters sprayed them with pepper spray.
22As tensions escalated, several gunshots suddenly rang out from the area near a strip of stores, including some that had been looted moments earlier.
23Belmar believes the shots came from about six different shooters.
24What prompted the shooting was not clear, but Belmar said two groups had been feuding.
25The shots sent protesters and reporters running for cover.
26The shooters included the suspect, identified by his father as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris Jr., whom police had been watching out of concern that he was armed, Belmar said.
27During 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.
28The suspect allegedly shot into the windshield of the van.
29The four officers in the van fired back, and then pursued the suspect on foot.
30The suspect again fired on the officers when he became trapped in a fenced-in area, the chief said, and all four opened fire.
31Harris was in critical condition after surgery early on Monday.
32Prosecutors 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.
33All 10 are felonies.
34All four officers in the van, each wearing protective vests, escaped injury.
35They were not wearing body cameras, Belmar said.
36Tyrone 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.
37The 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.
38"My son was running to the police to ask for help, and he was shot," he said.
39"It's all a bunch of lies ... They're making my son look like a criminal."
40Belmar said the suspect who fired on officers had a semi-automatic 9 mm gun that was stolen last year from Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
41Belmar drew a distinction between the shooters and the protesters.
42"They were criminals," he said of those involved in gunfire.
43"They weren't protesters."
44Governor Jay Nixon agreed, saying in a statement that such "reprehensible acts must not be allowed to silence the voices of peace and progress."
45Some protest groups said police were too quick to go into riot mode.
46Others questioned why plainclothes officers were part of the patrol.