Ed Sheeran, U2 cancel St. Louis shows amid unrest over acquittal of cop Jason Stockley

Jayme Deerwester | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption U2 cancels St. Louis concert citing safety concerns The highly-anticipated U2 concert in St. Louis, Missouri has been cancelled after the St. Louis police department told promoters that they are, 'not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience.'

Following U2's cancellation of its Saturday night stadium show in St. Louis, Ed Sheeran's Sunday night concert has been canceled amid the protests over Friday's acquittal of a police officer charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of an African-American driver.

"We have been informed by the St. Louis Police Department that they are not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size," U2 said in a joint statement with tour promoter Live Nation published on the band's website.

"We have also been informed that local crowd security personnel would not be at full capacity," they explained. "In light of this information, we cannot in good conscience risk our fans’ safety by proceeding with tonight’s concert. As much as we regret having to cancel, we feel it is the only acceptable course of action in the current environment."

Sheeran's tour promoter issued a similar statement about the Sunday night concert at Scottrade Center on the musician's website Messina Touring Group's message posted Saturday read: “With the safety of the fans being of upmost concern, and after consulting with local officials, who could not fully commit to providing a sufficient amount of police and other city services support, we felt it was in everyone’s best interest to cancel Sunday night’s show. While we regret to have had to come to this decision, we do look forward to returning to St. Louis as soon as Ed’s schedule will allow in 2018.”

The resulting protests have seen the injury of at least 10 officers and 23 arrests made in the hours after Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson found former St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer Jason Stockley not guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action after a bench trial with no jury. On the second night of unrest Saturday, storefronts in the St. Louis-area suburb of University City were damaged and protesters threw objects at police.

Timeline of St. Louis police shooting A judge ruled former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley not guilty in the 2011 death of Anthony Lamar Smith. Here is a timeline of events leading up to the ruling. (Sept. 15)