Man shot during Ferguson clashes
ONE person was shot and critically wounded and seven arrested yesterday as police in Ferguson, Missouri, clashed with protesters after a curfew was imposed following days of unrest.
ONE person was shot and critically wounded and seven arrested early yesterday as police in Ferguson, Missouri, clashed with protesters when a curfew was imposed following days of unrest over a black teenager being shot dead by a white police officer.
Scores of demonstrators had remained in the streets after the curfew took effect at midnight. Law enforcement officials used loudspeakers to warn protesters to disperse immediately.
Officers, equipped with gas masks and full-length shields, stood among and on top of armoured vehicles.
Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and announced the five-hour curfew after a week of racially charged protests and looting over the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the suburban St Louis community in the Midwest US state on August 9.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt Ron Johnson said the person shot at a restaurant was in critical condition. Police were unable to identify the victim, who he said was not shot by police, and that the alleged shooter was at large.
Seven people were also arrested for failing to disperse after the curfew took effect.
The smoke and teargas largely dispersed the crowd, some of whom had been chanting “No justice, no curfew, no peace”, while others implored the crowd not to move forward towards police.
On Saturday evening the mood among the protesters on a main road in Ferguson had been tense and defiant following days of demonstrations and looting.
Tensions had been running high over the past week but escalated on Friday, pitting mostly black protesters against mostly white police as the demonstrators overran a residential and retail district that has become a centre of the unrest.
Brown’s family and supporters have demanded that the officer who shot him be held accountable. The US justice department is investigating the shooting for any civil rights violations and the St Louis county police department has also launched a probe.
The police version of how Brown was shot differs from witness accounts, including that of Dorian Johnson, the friend who was walking with Brown at the time. Police say that after Mr Wilson asked Brown to move out of the road onto a sidewalk, Brown reached into the patrol car and struggled with Mr Wilson for the officer’s service gun.
Mr Wilson, who sustained a facial injury, then shot Brown a number of times.
Mr Johnson and at least one other witness have said the officer reached out through his car window to grab at Brown and the teenager was trying to get away from the officer when he was shot. Brown held up his hands in a sign of surrender but the officer got out of his patrol car and shot Brown several times, they said.