Police use tear gas on Berkeley protesters

Berkeley police officers advance on a crowds during demonstrations in Berkeley, California on Saturday, December 6, 2014. Protesting continued through the night in response to the grand jury verdicts in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City. less Berkeley police officers advance on a crowds during demonstrations in Berkeley, California on Saturday, December 6, 2014. Protesting continued through the night in response to the grand jury verdicts in the ... more Photo: Josh Edelson / The Chronicle Photo: Josh Edelson / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 105 Caption Close Police use tear gas on Berkeley protesters 1 / 105 Back to Gallery

Police in Berkeley used tear gas late Saturday night to break up an evening-long protest over recent incidents in which unarmed African American men were killed by police.

The episode was the culmination of a noisy, rowdy night of action through Berkeley. After more than five hours of marching and confrontations, about 400 protesters squared off against hundreds of police from Berkeley and other jurisdictions at the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Durant Street just south of the UC Berkeley campus.

After warning the crowd of protesters, officers fired tear gas, sending people fleeing in panic and pain.

Police arrested five adults and a juvenile on unspecified allegations, said Officer Jennifer Coats, a Berkeley police spokeswoman. Coats said protesters vandalized police vehicles and threw various objects at officers, including bricks, pipes, rocks and bottles. Some threw back smoke grenades that had been lobbed by officers, she said. One officer suffered a dislocated shoulder after being hit by a sandbag, she said.

But many protesters complained they were subjected to excessive force.

It wasn’t just protesters who were gassed.

Minutes before the police dispersed the crowd at about 10:30 p.m., several concerts had let out in the area. Well-dressed concertgoers waiting to pay in a nearby garage were enveloped in a cloud of stinging gas, sending them running into elevators.

“I’m not sure that’s necessary,” said Elaine Dunlap, 74, who had just attended a Paul Dresher concert at Zellerbach Playhouse. “I think people have a right to protest, certainly for an issue as big as this.”

She was sitting with her husband, Greg, tears streaming down their faces.

“I’ve never experienced that and I’m an old hippie,” she said.

Within minutes the crowd — which was joined by hundreds of UC Berkeley students out on Saturday night — re-formed a block south of Durant at Channing Way. Dozens in the group sat in front of a wall of police, chanting, “Peaceful protest.” Later, the group again squared off with officers, roaring, “Black lives matter.”

Officers told the crowd the assembly was unlawful as police pushed the group south on Telegraph. Around 1 a.m., police again fired tear gas at the protesters, sending the remaining group scattering.

The confrontations followed a night in which hundreds of people marched through Berkeley, including what police described as “splinter groups” that vandalized cars, broke windows and looted businesses.

Organizers had planned a peaceful march, but windows were broken and wine bottles smashed at a Trader Joe’s store near Martin Luther King and University Avenue, while masked looters broke into a Radio Shack store and grabbed merchandise. Protesters also broke windows at a Wells Fargo Bank.

At about 7 p.m., the Berkeley BART Station was shut down by the disturbances, with the North Berkeley station closed an hour later.

At Delaware Street and San Pablo Avenue about 7:30 p.m., the marchers were face-to-face with a line of about 100 police in riot gear who turned the crowd back toward downtown, more than a mile to the east.

“You’re f—ing cowards,” screamed one skateboard-carrying young man, his face hidden by a black bandanna. “You don’t represent us,” a woman shouted at police.

“This is supposed to be about stopping violence,” said Francesca Rivera of Berkeley, who was marching with the protesters. “There seem to be a number of very young people who don’t how to channel their violence.”

The march began peacefully at 5 p.m. at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, but the protesters were soon joined by groups of black-masked demonstrators looking for trouble, onlookers said. The demonstrators walked to Berkeley police headquarters and then scuffled with a skirmish line of officers trying to keep marchers from heading down University Avenue toward Interstate 80.

As protesters approached the highway, a line of police blocked the on-ramp.

Scott Bishop Falcone, a UC Berkeley graduate student, came out to protest. “Out of the houses and into the streets,” he yelled as he passed his home on University Avenue, hoping his neighbors would join.

Demonstrators in the Bay Area have been taking to the streets and freeways, disrupting transit, staging die-ins and, in some cases, vandalizing businesses since a grand jury decided Wednesday not to indict a white New York City police officer in the July 17 death of Eric Garner, 43.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo was filmed putting Garner, suspected of illegally selling loose cigarettes, in a choke hold that a medical examiner said contributed to the African American man’s death.

That decision followed a Missouri grand jury’s decision Nov. 24 not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American man.

Many of the Berkeley protesters were hoping to avoid the violence and vandalism that has plagued other demonstrations.

“Peacefully, nonviolently, we are here to talk justice,” said one of the demonstrators, Moni Law of Berkeley.

The Berkeley demonstration followed a rally earlier Saturday in San Francisco where more than 100 demonstrators gathered on Market Street in front of the Westfield San Francisco Centre, disrupting the bustling holiday shopping scene.

Protester Kelly Osajima, 24, of Emeryville said she had to speak out because “black lives matter. ... How can I stand by while this is happening?”

Police arrested at least a dozen demonstrators holding up signs in the middle of Market Street and stopping traffic, with some onlookers and fellow protesters booing and yelling, “Shame!”

Chronicle staff writers Victoria Colliver and Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.

Hamed Aleaziz, Greta Kaul and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com, gkaul@sfchronicle.com and esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz, @gretakaul and @evansernoffsky