Teen charged with arson in Missouri protest

[December 29, 2014]  (Reuters) - A teen was charged Saturday with arson after police say he confessed to setting a convenience store on fire during anti-police violence protests in a St. Louis suburb last week, according to officials and media reports.

Joshua Williams, 19, was in the St. Louis County Jail on Saturday in lieu of $30,000 bond on a felony charge of arson, second degree burglary and misdemeanor theft of property and services, according to a jail official.

Police say Williams, who has been quoted by the media at protests and rallies after the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., took part in protests Wednesday in neighboring Berkeley after police shot to death a man in that town, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Antonio Martin, 18, was killed by police at a Mobil on the Run gas station on Tuesday night after officers said he pulled a gun on them.

During the protests that happened later in the evening at that gas station, police said Williams broke into a nearby Quik Trip convenience store and set it on fire, the Post-Dispatch reported.

He was recorded by a surveillance camera, according to the report.

(Reporting by Karen Brooks; Editing by Robeert Birsel)

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