|
 Some demonstrators hurled rocks at police as others scattered,
while smoke engulfed the area. A Reuters reporter saw two young men
preparing what looked like petrol bombs in a bus-stop shelter, their
faces covered by bandanas. Police said protesters had thrown petrol
bombs at officers.
Protesters have gathered every night since Saturday when 18-year-old
Michael Brown was shot to death in the mostly black suburb of St.
Louis, during what authorities said was a struggle over a gun in a
police car. Some witnesses say he was outside the car with his hands
up.
Police have deployed camouflage-clad officers in body armor,
including one manning a rifle on a tripod atop an armored car, to
Ferguson.
"I've had enough of being pushed around because of the color of my
skin. I'm sick of this police brutality," said one protester, who
gave only his first name, Terrell, 18. "I'm going to keep coming
back here night after night until we get justice."
A St. Louis alderman, Antonio French, was among some 10 people
arrested on Wednesday evening, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper
reported. About 40 protesters have been arrested since Saturday.
National figures from President Barack Obama to civil rights
activist Rev. Al Sharpton have called for a peaceful response to the
shooting.
Obama, who is vacationing on the Massachusetts island of Martha's
Vineyard, was briefed on Wednesday night about events in Ferguson by
senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder, the White House said.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said in a series of Twitter messages he
would visit the area on Thursday, and urged "law enforcement to
respect rights of residents (and) press" with the hopes that the
"ongoing crisis" does not compound Saturday's "tragedy."
"Situation in Ferguson does not represent who we are. Must keep the
peace, while safeguarding rights of citizens and the press," Nixon
wrote.
Police have been slow to release information about the shooting,
except to say that it followed a struggle between the unnamed
officer and Brown and that the officer was treated at a hospital for
swelling on the side of his face.
One witness who was walking with Brown at the time has said in media
interviews that Brown put his hands in the air and was not
struggling with the officer. He said the officer fired multiple
times into Brown's head and chest. A preliminary autopsy confirmed
Brown was shot a number of times, according to media reports.
The witness, Dorian Johnson, was expected to meet on Wednesday with
prosecutors and investigators, local media reported. His lawyer,
Freeman Bosley, a former St. Louis mayor, did not immediately answer
requests for comment.
Another witness, Tiffany Mitchell, told CNN she watched Brown and
the officer "tussling through the window," with the officer pulling
the teen in as he struggled to get away, and then a "shot was fired
through the window."
"The kid he finally gets away and he starts running. As he runs, the
police get out of his vehicle and he follows behind him shooting,"
Mitchell said, adding that Brown turned around and put his hands in
the air.
[to top of second column] |
"And the cop continued to fire until he just dropped down to the
ground and his face just smacks the concrete."
RACE RELATIONS
Police have declined to release the name of the officer involved in
the incident, citing concerns for his safety, a decision that has
been criticized by demonstrators. The officer has been placed on
administrative leave.
Police Chief Thomas Jackson told reporters his priority was
improving race relations in Ferguson, which has seen a stark
demographic shift in recent decades, going from mostly 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.
"This is an opportunity to fix what's wrong," he said.
The local Ferguson-Florissant school district postponed its first
day of classes until Monday, cancelling classes for this Thursday
and Friday.
As the protest swelled on Wednesday night, reporters Wesley Lowery
of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of Huffington Post were
briefly arrested at a fast-food restaurant.
A cloud of tear gas forced Al Jazeera journalists to flee at one
point as they prepared for live reporting, with an anchor for the
broadcaster Tweeting that police fired the canister at the crew.
Meanwhile, police in California were investigating a separate
incident of an officer fatally shooting an unarmed 25-year-old black
man in Los Angeles.
On social media, groups claiming to be associated with the Anonymous
hacker activist group called for nationwide protests and threatened
to reveal personal information about Ferguson police officers.
The Ferguson police said there have been attempts to hack their
website and that it was temporarily disrupted, and the cyber-threats
prompted the decision not to release the officer's name.
(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and Jeff Mason in Edgartown, Massachusetts; Writing by Eric M.
Johnson; Editing by Larry King)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
