St Louis County police take over operations in Ferguson a day after 18-year-old black man was shot by police after firing on unmarked vehicle

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

St Louis County has issued a state of emergency following Sunday night’s escalation in violence during a demonstration marking the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

“In light of last night’s violence and unrest in the city of Ferguson, and the potential for harm to persons and property, I am exercising my authority as county executive to issue a state of emergency, effective immediately,” St Louis County executive Steve Stenger said in a statement.

Stenger later told KMOX radio in an interview that a curfew banning Ferguson residents from the streets late at night may yet be implemented.

St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar will take over the operation of emergency management in Ferguson and surrounding areas, Stenger said.

Meanwhile, peaceful protesters were arrested in St Louis on Monday as they continued demonstrating after the first anniversary of the Brown’s death.

Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) Should be noted peaceful protesters at fed courthouse in downtown St Louis are being arrested by officers from the Dept of Homeland Security

A legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild and several members of the local clergy were also arrested as demonstrators walked through a temporary barrier and sat outside the courthouse building.



Reporters who attempted to monitor the arrests at close quarters were pushed back by officers and threatened with arrest for trespassing on federal property by Sam Dotson, the chief of the St Louis metropolitan police department (MPD).

In a statement, Richard Callahan, the US attorney for the eastern district of Missouri, said 57 protesters had been arrested for “obstructing normal use of the entrances” to the federal courthouse.

Those arrested were being processed by the US Marshals Service “as quickly as can administratively be”, and would be released on summons, he said.

Callahan described the protest as “otherwise peaceful and nonviolent”.

Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) .@Nettaaaaaaaa in custody pic.twitter.com/EQgAaA33ld

“This is what democracy looks like,” protesters chanted, led in song by Alexis Templeton, another young demonstration leader, as their colleagues were arrested. “Black lives matter, black lives matter,” others shouted.



Clergy who remained behind the barrier with other protesters led renditions of Christian spirituals as Black Lives Matter organisers handed out fruit and water.

Later on Monday about 60 protesters were arrested after blocking interstate highway 70 in both directions near Ferguson, bringing the day’s total arrests to almost 120. Traffic was held up as police forcefully confronted demonstrators. Two reporters covering the protest action were briefly detained before being released, they said.



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The philosopher Cornel West and the prominent young protest leaders DeRay McKesson and Johnetta “Netta” Elzie were among demonstrators detained in plastic handcuffs and arrested by officers from the Department of Homeland Security and St Louis Metropolitan police at the federal courthouse in the city’s downtown district. All three were later released.

The protests followed a chaotic night in which demonstrations were followed by violence in the centre of Ferguson. A young black man was shot by police on the edges of the Sunday night protests after allegedly opening fire on an unmarked police vehicle.



Tyrone Harris, 18, was shot by four plainclothes detectives on Sunday night after allegedly firing on their unmarked vehicle as he walked from a gunfight between several people late on Sunday night, according to the St Louis County police department.



On Monday, Harris was charged with four counts of first-degree assault on law enforcement, five counts of armed criminal action, and one count of shooting a firearm at a vehicle, a police department spokesman said on Monday, adding that Harris was being detained on a $250,000 cash-only bond.

Harris remains in critical condition in hospital after undergoing surgery, according to police.

Sunday night’s demonstrations were dispersed by police firing teargas. In the hours after the shooting, dozens of protesters were swept from a main street in the city by police who fired a barrage of gas and smoke grenades. Officers wearing body armour were backed by the military-style armoured vehicles seen after Brown’s death last August.

Police said five men, all from the St Louis area, had been arrested. Among them Trevion Hopson, 17, and Jeffrey Pruitt, 27, were charged with unlawful use of a weapon. Three others were charged with interfering. One police officer suffered a cut to the face after being hit by a rock and another two officers were “pepper-sprayed by protesters”, according to a police spokesman.

Harris’s father told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that his son was a graduate of Normandy high school, which Brown also attended, and that the pair had been close.

Former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in November by a state grand jury, and the US Department of Justice declined to prosecute him for civil rights violations. Brown’s family is suing Wilson and the city, alleging they caused the wrongful death of their son.

On Monday evening Brown’s father, Michael Sr, thanked supporters in a Facebook post for the “meaningful, inspiring and successful” events held over the weekend of the anniversary.

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“My family and I are truly humbled by the level of support that we received over this weekend,” Brown said.

“Our marches were all done very peacefully. So please be careful, mindful and protect yourselves from those who would like to see this be unsuccessful.”

Meanwhile a Washington Post reporter who was arrested almost a year ago while covering the protests in Ferguson following Brown’s death announced on Monday that he had been charged. Wesley Lowery is accused of trespassing and interfering with a police officer. He was arrested while working from a McDonald’s restaurant as police swept people out of the centre of the city. Martin Baron, the newspaper’s executive editor, said in a statement that the move was “outrageous”.







