At the QuikTrip, one man who claimed to have taken part late Sunday sought to justify the violence. But other citizens dropped by to decry the mayhem and to urge businesses to continue serving the area.

Leonette Hilliard, a middle school English teacher, wrote a note to the store and taped it onto the side wall saying, “Corporate neighbor: I am sorry this act of robbery and violence has happened. Please return soon.”

She taped it across graffiti saying “187 county police,” the 187 being a slang reference to murder. Hilliard said she comes to the store to two or three times a week and has been doing so for about 15 years.

“This just doesn’t represent who we are as a community and I wanted just to say something to do something that was productive,” she said.

Belmar said Monday that officers originally were deployed the night before so protesters had an “opportunity to vent, but at some point we could no longer sustain that attitude.” He said they moved to police cars to become more mobile as departments received numerous calls for shots fired, vandalism, burglary and assault.

“It was a miracle, however, that nobody actually got shot (Sunday) night,” Belmar said. “I was expecting the worst. You can never tell, when you’re in an environment like this.”

Tim Barker, Kim Bell, Jesse Bogan, Jessica Bock, Tim Bryant, Nancy Cambria, Stephen Deere, Lilly Fowler, Steve Giegerich, Valerie Schremp Hahn, Paul Hampel, Jeremy Kohler, Tim O’Neil, Margaret Gillerman and Nicholas Pistor, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.

Tim O'Neil is a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Contact him at 314-340-8132 or toneil@post-dispatch.com