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 Demonstrations, mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence by
smaller groups, have flared since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead
while walking down a residential street on August 9.
State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, briefing reporters on
Monday's night's violence, said "our officers came under heavy
gunfire" in one area.
"Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under
heavy attack," he told a news conference. Riot police had
confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a petrol
bomb. Four officers had been injured.
Johnson separately told CNN that two people were shot within the
crowd, but not by police, and were taken to hospital. There was no
immediate word on their condition.
The violence has captured headlines around the world, raising
questions about the state of U.S. race relations nearly six years
after Americans elected their first black president.
"This has to stop. I don't want anybody to get hurt. We have to find
a way to stop this," said Johnson, an African-American who grew up
in the area and who took over security efforts after the mostly
white local force was accused of using excessive force against
blacks.
 An overnight curfew has been imposed and the National Guard, the
U.S. state militia, has been deployed in the St. Louis suburb of
21,000 people to stop looting and burning that have punctuated the
protests.
President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders have appealed for
calm while a federal investigation into the shooting proceeds.
"While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the
death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or
carrying guns, and even attacking the police, only serves to raise
tensions and stir chaos," Obama told a news conference on Monday.
"It undermines, rather than advancing, justice."
BOTTLES HURLED
Monday night's clashes between riot police and protesters followed
hours of mostly peaceful demonstrations, Reuters witnesses said.
Police had closed a roadway to traffic to provide a path for marches
but said a smaller group within the larger crowd hurled bottles,
rocks and petrol bombs at officers standing near armored vehicles.
Police responded by firing gas-filled canisters and a noise cannon
to try to disperse the throng.
Some demonstrators, including a church minister using a blow horn,
urged crowds to calm down.
There have been largely peaceful protests over Brown's killing
elsewhere in the United States including in St. Louis, New York,
Seattle and Oakland. Police commander Johnson said some of those
arrested had come from California and New York.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency in
Ferguson on Saturday and a curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. He also
mobilized the National Guard to back up state police.
Obama said he told the governor the use of the National Guard should
be limited and called for conciliation in communities hit by the
unrest. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will visit Ferguson on
Wednesday, Obama said.
Holder said over 40 FBI agents were canvassing Ferguson
neighborhoods in their investigation and an additional medical
examination was being performed on Brown. Results of autopsies done
by federal and St. Louis County authorities were pending.
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MULTIPLE SHOTS
Brown was shot by white policeman Darren Wilson, 28, who is now on
paid leave, in hiding and under criminal investigation.
Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, and
may have been lowering his head in surrender when the fatal shot
struck, according to Brown family attorney Daryl Parks. There were
no signs of struggle with the officer and no gunshot residue on the
body.
Ferguson police quoted Wilson as saying he had asked Brown and a
friend to move off the street where they were walking, and onto the
sidewalk. Wilson reported that Brown reached into his patrol car and
struggled for his gun.
St. Louis County prosecutors' spokesman Edward Magee said the case
could be presented this week to an investigating grand jury which
would decide whether Wilson will be indicted.
Ferguson has seen a stark demographic shift in recent decades, going
from all white to mostly black. Out of a police force of 53, three
officers are black.
Many Ferguson residents say Brown's killing was emblematic of police
excesses against blacks, a charge authorities deny.
Brown's friend Dorian Johnson, 22, said Wilson had reached out of
his car window to grab Brown and the teenager tried to get away.
Johnson said Brown held up his hands to surrender but Wilson got out
of his car and shot him several times.
The National Bar Association, containing the largest network of
black attorneys and judges, filed a lawsuit on Monday against
Ferguson and its police department, demanding it protect evidence of
the shooting and arrests made during protests.
Looting has left a number of Ferguson stores in shambles. Two fires
were set on Monday evening, one at a business and one at an
unoccupied home, Johnson said.
The disturbances are the worst of their kind for more than a year.
In July 2013, there were angry, albeit peaceful, protests in cities
across the United States over the acquittal in a Florida
second-degree murder and manslaughter trial of neighborhood watch
volunteer George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, who shot dead an
unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in the street during a
scuffle in February 2012.
(Additional reporting by Lucas Jackson in Ferguson, Carey Gillam in
Kansas City, Mo., Eric Beech in Washington, Curtis Skinner in New
York; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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