Wednesday night, police in Ferguson, Missouri, attempted to disperse several hundred protesters with tear gas, stun grenades, and smoke bombs. It was the fourth night of demonstrations in response to the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, at the hands of a Ferguson police officer.

News organizations have had a notoriously difficult time covering the demonstrations in recent days as the FAA has enacted a no-fly zone over the area, preventing news helicopters from covering the scene, and police have often turned away and arrested journalists.

Wednesday night, local news channel KSDK caught footage and photos of a SWAT team firing tear gas at an Al Jazeera America TV crew that was covering the events behind the police barricade. The SWAT team then moved to dismantle and carry off their camera equipment.

Here's footage from Al Jazeera America:

Ash-har Quaraishi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera America who was on the scene, said police were fully aware of their presence on the scene. Here's what Quaraishi told Business Insider in a statement:

... I had spoken to police officers who knew we were there. We had had discussions with them. We understood this was as far as we could get in terms of where the protest was going on, about a mile up the road. So, we didn’t think there would be any problems here so we were very surprised ...

We were very close to where those [tear gas] canisters were shot from. We yelled, as you heard there [on the video]. We were yelling that we were press. But they continued to fire. We retreated about half a block into the neighborhood, until we could get out of that situation.”

Marla Cichowski, a field producer at Al Jazeera America, gave her side of the situation in the same statement:

We were clearly set up as press with a full live shot set up. As soon as first bullet hit the car we screamed out loud, "We are press,’ ‘This is media."

Police that were there at the intersection directing traffic earlier knew we were there. We never drove around the police barricade.

There was another station local NBC parked across the street from us the whole time.

They shined a huge flood light at us before firing and I can only imagine they could see what they were shooting at.

Police have not yet released a statement about the event. Al Jazeera has. Here it is in full:

Last night at 10:30 pm CD in Ferguson, Missouri, an Al Jazeera America news crew was reporting behind police barricades. They were easily identifiable as a working television crew. As they were setting up their camera for a live report, tear gas canisters landed in their proximity and police fired rubber bullets in their direction. POlice continued to shoot after crew members clearly and repeatedly shouted "Press."

Al Jazeera America is stunned by this egregious assault on freedom of the press that was clearly intended to have a chilling effect on our ability to cover this important story. Thankfully, all three crew members are physically fine.

We believe that this situation must be investigated along with those involving our colleagues at other media outlets.

From heavily armed SWAT officers aiming rifles at unarmed civilians to the use of intimidating armored vehicles — Ferguson looks less small-town U.S.A. and more like Egypt's Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring. The behavior of police is similar — albeit less deadly — in the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and a deafening loudspeaker meant to break up the demonstration officers had declared "no longer peaceful."

Various live streams showed a defiant but mostly peaceful crowd chanting and singing songs. But some protesters have indeed been seen, as St. Louis Post-Dispatch's David Carson tweeted, throwing rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails.

On Wednesday evening, the situation escalated as officers over a loudspeaker told the protesters they needed to go home, although they were told their "right to assembly is not being denied." Two reporters were later arrested while working inside a McDonald's restaurant nearby for no apparent reason.

One officer reportedly slammed a reporter's head against glass, according to CBS correspondent Mark Strassmann. Both reporters were later released, with no charges filed.

Soon after, the police moved in on the crowd, firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and police officers instructed people to turn off their cameras.

Police made 16 arrests and that one officer was injured overnight.

Paul Szoldra contributed reporting to this story.