St. Louis County's police chief said a man opened fire on
plainclothes detectives late Sunday before being pursued and shot by the
officers after a day of peaceful demonstrations in Ferguson marking the
anniversary of Michael Brown's death.
Chief Jon Belmar did not identify the suspect, whom he said was in
"critical, unstable" condition at a local hospital. However, the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch identified the man as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris Jr.
Harris' father, also named Tyrone, told the paper that his son had just
come out of surgery early Monday, and noted that his son and Michael
Brown "were real close."
Belmar said that officers had been tracking the man, whom they
believed to be armed, during the protest. He said the man approached the
detectives, who were sitting in a van, and opened fire. The officers
returned fire from inside the vehicle before pursuing the man on foot.
Belmar said the man shot again at the officers, all four of whom
returned fire.
The man who fired on officers had a semi-automatic 9MM gun that was
stolen last year from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, according to the chief.
The officers have been placed on administrative leave, in keeping
with standard practice after police-involved shootings. Belmar said none
of the officers, who have between 6 and 12 years of experience, was
seriously injured.
The shooting took place at approximately 11:15 p.m. local time as several hundred people gathered on West Florissant Street.
Belmar told reporters at a news conference early Monday that a second
shooting involving two groups of people happened on the west side of
West Florissant Avenue just before the police-involved shooting. Belmar
said that between 40 and 50 shots were fired in an exchange that lasted
approximately 45 seconds, an amount he described as "remarkable." There
was no immediate word of any casualties from that shooting.
"They were criminals. They weren't protesters," Belmar said of those involved in the shootings.
"There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making
sure that peace doesn't prevail," he added. "There are a lot of
emotions. I get it. But we can't sustain this as we move forward."
At the time of the shootings, observers told the Post-Dispatch that
fewer than 100 protesters remained on the streets and were outnumbered
by members of the media. However, the few protesters who remained were
blocking traffic and confronting police. One person threw a glass bottle
at officers but missed.
For the first time in three consecutive nights of demonstrations,
some officers were dressed in riot gear, including bullet-proof vests
and helmets with shields. One officer was treated for cuts related to a
brick thrown at his face, Belmar said. Police made an unknown number of
arrests and at one point early Monday shot smoke to disperse the crowd
that lingered on West Florissant, he said.
The gunfire marred a day of largely peaceful protest on the
anniversary of the killing that shone a national spotlight on relations
between the police and black communities across America. Brown's father,
Michael Brown Sr., led a march through town after a crowd of hundreds
observed 4 1/2 minutes of silence.
The group began their silence at 12:02 p.m., the time Brown was
killed, for a length of time that symbolized the 4 1/2 hours that his
body lay in the street after he was killed. Two doves were released at
the end.
The elder Brown then held hands with others to lead the march, which
started at the site where his son, who was black and unarmed, was
fatally shot by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. A grand
jury and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to prosecute Wilson,
who resigned in November, but the shooting touched off a national "Black
Lives Matter" movement.
Pausing along the route at a permanent memorial for his son, Michael Brown Sr. said, "Miss you."
He had thanked supporters before the march for not allowing what happened to his son to be "swept under the carpet."
Later, a few hundred people turned out at Greater St. Mark Family
Church for a service to remember Brown, with his father joining other
relatives sitting behind the pulpit. Anthony Gray, a Brown family
attorney pressing a wrongful-death lawsuit against Ferguson, Wilson and
his former police chief, suggested that justice will be served on
Michael Brown's behalf.
Gray told the crowd: "You knew in your gut that (the shooting) wasn't
right. And you knew what that officer did was unjustified."
The two-hour commemoration, featuring a mime dance and a rap-infused
version of "Lean on Me" peppered between reflections about Brown,
thinned as it wore on. Roughly 50 still remained by the time Michael
Brown Sr. was finally handed the microphone to thank attendees and close
out the event, saying, "This movement is going to be a good movement."
Organizers of some of the weekend activities have pledged a day of
civil disobedience on Monday, but have not yet offered specific details.
Earlier, at the march, some wore T-shirts with likenesses of Brown or
messages such as "Please stop killing us" or "Hands up! Don't shoot!"
which became a rallying cry during the sometimes-violent protests that
followed the shooting a year ago.
But the focus of the weekend has largely been on Brown, who graduated
from high school weeks before the shooting and planned to go to trade
school to study to become a heating and air conditioning technician.
Relatives and friends described Brown as a quiet teen who stood
around 6-foot-3, weighed nearly 300 pounds and was eager to start
technical college. But police said Brown stole items from a convenience
store and shoved the owner who tried to stop him on the morning of Aug.
9, 2014. Moments later, he and a friend were walking on Canfield Drive
when Wilson, who is white, told them to move to the sidewalk.
That led to a confrontation inside Wilson's police car. It spilled
outside, and Wilson claimed that Brown came at him, menacingly, leading
to the fatal shooting. Some witnesses claimed Brown had his hands up in
surrender. Federal officials concluded there was no evidence to disprove
testimony by Wilson that he feared for his safety, nor was there
reliable evidence that Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was
shot.
The shooting led to protests, some violent, and the unrest escalated
again in November when a St. Louis County grand jury determined that
Wilson did nothing wrong. He resigned days later. The November riots
included fires that burned more than a dozen businesses.
The Justice Department reached the same conclusion in March, clearing
Wilson. But in a separate report, the Justice Department cited racial
bias and profiling in policing as well as a profit-driven municipal
court system that often targeted black residents, who make up about
two-thirds of Ferguson's populace.
Ferguson's city manager, police chief and municipal judge resigned
within days of that report. All three were white. The new judge, interim
city manager and interim police chief are all black. (Racist City)
