Late-night looters trash Oakland stores

Protesters loot the grocery store Smart and Final after vandalizing the front and breaking the windows during a protest against the grand jury's decision not to indict the white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager months ago in Ferguson Nov. 24, 2014 in Oakland, Calif. less Protesters loot the grocery store Smart and Final after vandalizing the front and breaking the windows during a protest against the grand jury's decision not to indict the white police officer who fatally shot ... more Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 55 Caption Close Late-night looters trash Oakland stores 1 / 55 Back to Gallery

As Monday night’s demonstrations over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown dribbled into Tuesday morning, a hard core of remaining people in Oakland turned into opportunists as they looted two downtown businesses of booze, coffee beans and dog food.

The evening’s protests had started out peacefully in cities throughout Northern California, but in Oakland several demonstrators clashed with police early on — and then it got ugly around midnight.

A couple of hundred protesters lit a bonfire in the middle of Broadway as the Starbucks store on Eighth Street was trashed and looted of equipment and bags of coffee beans. Thieves then smashed into the nearby Smart & Final and ran away with booze bottles, snacks, 12-packs of beer and bags of dog food.

A phalanx of police in helmets with shields ordered the crowd to disperse, but the protesters refused to move, yelling obscenities and tossing bottles of alcohol at the officers. The officers fired flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, forcing back the mob, which ignited new bonfires as it retreated.

Most of the protesters left the scene after the clash, but a remaining 50 retreated to Telegraph and Broadway and lit a fire. They remained there past 1 a.m., many drinking booze looted from Smart & Final while police kept an eye on them from about a block away.

Vivian Ho, Jill Tucker and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: kfagan@sfchronicle.com