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 But early on Wednesday, a police officer shot and critically
wounded a man who drew a handgun near the site of the protests, he
St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper reported, citing a police
spokesman.
St. Louis County Police Department officers responded about an hour
after midnight to reports of four or five men with shotguns and
wearing ski masks. They encountered "multiple subjects running,"
police spokesman Brian Schellman said.
One of them pulled a gun on an officer, who fired at him, police
said. The man was taken to an area hospital.
Shortly after midnight, police fired tear gas into protesters who
had confronted a line of officers after a far larger crowd
dispersed, Schellman said. A photograph in the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch showed a protester wearing a shirt with an American
flag printed on it throwing a tear gas container back at the police.
President Obama promised a full investigation by the U.S. Department
of Justice into the teenager's death, which has provoked outrage in
the largely African-American town of Ferguson.
"I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong
passions, but ... I urge everyone in Ferguson, Missouri, and across
the country, to remember this young man through reflection and
understanding," Obama said in a statement.
Friends and family of 18-year-old Michael Brown held a peaceful
church vigil on Tuesday night, after his father pleaded for an end
to the violence. Standing with supporters, including the Rev. Al
Sharpton, Michael Brown Sr. said he wanted justice for his son but
wanted it "the right way."
"I need all of us to come together and do this right, the right
way," said Brown Sr., who wore a T-shirt showing his son's baby
picture. "No violence."
Several hundred protesters appeared to heed the calls for
non-violence late on Tuesday evening, chanting "hands up, don't
shoot" and "no justice, no peace" during a tense but ultimately
peaceful stand-off with police clad in riot gear and flanked by
armored vehicles near the site of Brown's death.
The protesters, some of whom waved signs as the group was led in
chants by megaphone, had dwindled to a handful before midnight.
Also on Wednesday, a woman was shot in the head in a drive-by
shooting blocks from the area where Brown was killed. Her condition
and whether the shooting were related to the protests was unknown,
Schellman said.
In a separate incident simmering in California, a vigil was planned
after Monday's shooting death of an unarmed 24-year-old black man in
Los Angeles, USA TODAY cited a Los Angeles Police Department
spokeswoman as saying.
Sharpton, a New York-based civil rights leader, called for peaceful
protest in the wake of looting and more than 50 arrests since the
shooting. Sharpton's National Action Network will pay for Brown's
funeral.
"To become violent in Michael Brown's name is to betray the gentle
giant that he was," Sharpton said of the 6-foot, 4-inch (198-cm)
Brown, who had planned to start college this week.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon told a packed church in North St. Louis
County on Tuesday evening the community was "reeling from what feels
like an old wound that has been torn open afresh."
The activists also were demanding authorities make public the name
of the officer involved. The police had said they would release the
officer's name on Tuesday, but changed the plan, citing fears of
retaliation, according to media reports.
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Police said Brown was shot in a struggle with a gun in a police car
but have not said why Brown was in the car. At least one shot was
fired during the struggle and then the officer fired more shots
before leaving the car, police said.
The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the racially
charged case and St. Louis County also is investigating.
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
A witness to the shooting interviewed on local media has said that
Brown had been putting his hands up to surrender when he was killed.
"There were many, many witnesses who have talked to family members
and they paint a very different picture than police witnesses," said
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Brown family. Crump also
represented the family of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen
killed in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012.
The "hands up" gesture has been frequently seen at protests over the
shooting. More than 100 protesters in front of the St. Louis County
Courthouse in nearby Clayton on Tuesday morning chanted "hands up,
don't shoot."
Demonstrations on Sunday night turned violent, with looting and
property damage. Violence broke out again on Monday night as police
officers in riot gear, armed with rifles and accompanied by dogs
tried to secure the area.
Residents in the low-income, mostly black neighborhood where Brown
was killed say they are often harassed by police. Ferguson Police
Chief Tom Jackson said the neighborhood had a lot of crime but there
were no race problems.
Ferguson has seen a stark demographic shift in recent decades, going
from all white to mostly black. About two-thirds of the town's
21,000-strong population are black. On a police force of 53, three
officers are black.
The race of officers should not matter as long as their work is fair
and professional, said Dave Klinger, a former police officer and
criminal justice professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
"If the officer behaved inappropriately, we've got to sanction the
officer and figure out what it is that led him to do what he did,"
Klinger said. "Was he poorly trained? Was there a pattern in this
agency?"
Klinger said the investigation must be as "transparent as possible."
(This version of the story restores a dropped letter in the second
paragraph.)
(Additional reporting by Mary Wisniewski in Chicago and Carey Gillam
in Ferguson, Missouri; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Larry
King)
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