This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A protester who advocated for peaceful demonstrations in Ferguson in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown has been charged with setting fire to a convenience store in a neighbouring suburb.

A St Louis County jail official said 19-year-old Joshua Williams was being held on Saturday on $30,000 bond on charges that included arson.

The St Louis Post-Dispatch reported that media outlets and store surveillance captured images of a man trying to set a pile of wood on fire early on Wednesday outside a QuikTrip in Berkeley. Charges filed on Saturday said Williams had confessed in a videotaped interview.

Berkeley police shot and killed Antonio Martin, an 18-year-old-man, late on Tuesday at a gas station near the QuikTrip, and a large crowd gathered to protest. Police said Martin had pointed a gun at officers. Protests continued into a second night.

Williams was frequently quoted and photographed during protests over Brown’s death, which occurred at the hands of a white police officer in August. In November Ferguson was hit by rioting after a grand jury decided not to indict the officer, Darren Wilson.

It was not immediately known if Williams had an attorney.