Outraged crowds gather after a police officer shot an unarmed teenager on the street in St Louis and his grandmother discovers his body



18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead in the street by police officers near St Louis Saturday afternoon

He was on his way to visit his grandmother

Witnesses say he was unarmed and had his hands in the air when he was shot multiple times by an officer

Police have not given a reason for the killing

Angry crowds gathered at the scene of the shooting for hours afterwards, shouting and cursing at police

Michael Brown had recently graduated high school and hoped to attend college

A woman whose grandson was fatally shot by police says she found his body in the middle of the street minutes after he was expected to arrive at her home.

Desiree Harris says she was driving through her suburban St. Louis neighborhood Saturday afternoon when she saw her 18-year-old grandson, Michael Brown, walking a few blocks from her house. After she arrived home minutes later, she heard a commotion and ran outside to see Brown's body on the pavement nearby.

Hundreds of angry residents gathered for hours after the incident, shouting and cursing at police.

Victim: Michael Brown was shot dead by police on Saturday afternoon as he headed towards his grandmother's home Recent graduate: Brown had just graduated from high school and hoped to attend college

Son shot: Louis Head, stepfather to 18-year-old Michael Brown who was fatally shot by police, holds a sign that reads, 'Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son!!!'

Devastated: Lesley McSpadden, pictured left on Sunday, said she did not condone the looting that took place after a vigil for her son

Deadly police shooting: Ferguson police officers try to calm down a crowd near the scene where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, near St. Louis on Saturday,

Shock and grief: Michael Brown's grandmother Desiree Harris saw her grandson running on his way to visit her when he was fatally shot and later discovered his bleeding body on the road

Emotions run high: Family, friends and community members gathered at the scene where a recent high school graduate was shot dead on a suburban street

'He was a good kid. He didn't live around here, he came to visit me,' Mike Brown's grandmother told KMOV.

'He was spending the summer with me, and they did that to him with no reason.'

Harris said she was expecting her 18-year-old grandson, Michael Brown, to visit her that afternoon and discovered him dead after she heard the commotion outside the apartment complex.

'He was running this way,' she said. 'When I got up there, my grandson was lying on the pavement. I asked the police what happened. They didn't tell me nothing.'

Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, told an acquaintance the shooting was 'wrong and it was cold-hearted,' the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. According to the newspaper, Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, held a sign that read: 'Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son!!!'



Eyewitnesses say the teenager was unarmed and had his hands in the air when he was shot dead by police.



The teenager had just graduated high school and hoped to begin college in the fall.



Mourning mother: Lesley McSpadden, center, drops rose petals on the blood stains from her 18-year-old son Michael Brown who was shot and killed by police in the middle of the street in Ferguson

Horror scene: Residents and family members saw the body of Michael Brown lying in the middle of the road after being shot dead by a police officer

Shock: Two young girls comfort each other after a teenager was shot dead in the street in Ferguson, near St Louis

'My grandson never even got into a fight,' she said. 'He was just looking forward to getting on with his life. He was on his way.'



A spokesman with the St. Louis County Police Department confirmed a Ferguson police officer shot the man. The spokesman didn't give the reason for the shooting.

A large crowd of angry residents confronted police officers Saturday afternoon, yelling such things as 'kill the police' after an officer fatally shot a male in a St. Louis-area neighborhood.

Officer Brian Schellman, spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department, said 'a couple hundred' people came out of apartment buildings after an officer with the Ferguson Police Department shot and killed the male. Schellman did not identify the person who was shot or say what prompted the shooting.

The St Louis County Police Department has taken over the investigation.



John Gaskin, a member of the St. Louis County NAACP, called on the FBI's assistance was needed 'to protect the integrity of the investigation.'

'With the recent events of a young man killed by the police in New York City and with Trayvon Martin and with all the other African-American young men that have been killed by police officers ... this is a dire concern to the NAACP, especially our local organization,' Gaskin said.

Anger: A crowd was stopped by police as they were trying to reach the scene where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by police

Unarmed: Brown was unarmed and witnesses say he had his hands in the air when he was shot dead

Senseless killing: Police officers stand near a crowd that is gathering by the scene where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by police

Gaskin said officials in the organization spoke with St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, who told them the male was a teenager and had been shot twice.

A witness Fox2Now that she saw Brown 'running for his life,' before he was shot. He turned around with his hands in the air, she said, but was shot twice more, resulting in his death.



Schellman declined to give any information about the male who was shot, including his age or race, because police were still trying to notify relatives.

After the shooting, some people yelled threats toward the police, and officers said they thought they heard gunshots, Schellman said. There were no reports of additional injuries, he said.

After the crowd gathered, police at the scene called for about 60 other police units to respond to the area in Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 residents located a few miles north of downtown St. Louis.



According to the U.S. Census Bureau from 2012, about two-thirds of the residents are black.

Schellman said the crowd was under control by about 5 p.m. and several of the additional officers had left the area.

Gaskin said the angry crowd was reacting to a 'trauma.'

'Anytime you have this type of event that's taken place, emotions are going to run high,' he said.



'But for 600 people to gather around an area to see where a man is lying in the street, that means something happened that should have not happened.'