State of Emergency Declared in Ferguson After Police Shoot and Critically Injure Man During Protests [+video]
By Wesley Lowery, William Wan and Mark Berman. A man who was shot and critically injured by police here after authorities said he opened fire at officers was in critical condition Monday, his father said, as questions remained about what sparked the gunfire amid protests marking the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.
The late-night shooting was a violent coda to a mostly peaceful day of protests and vigils commemorating a year since Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, was shot and killed by a white Ferguson officer, an event that thrust this small suburb of St. Louis into the center of a national conversation on how police officers use lethal force toward minorities.
It heightened fears about what the latest bloodshed could do to a tense community that has repeatedly been unsettled by unrest over the last year. Activists had planned a day of civil disobedience on Monday, and dozens of people were arrested in St. Louis on Monday.
On Monday afternoon, the St. Louis County executive declared a state of emergency in response to what he called “the potential for harm to persons and property” in the area.
“The recent acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger,” Steve Stenger, the county executive, said in a statement. “The time and investment in Ferguson and Dellwood will not be destroyed by a few that wish to violate the rights of others.” (Read more from “State of Emergency Declared in Ferguson After Police Shoot and Critically Injure Man During Protests” HERE)
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Man Shot by Police in Ferguson During Protests
By Tom Cleary. An 18-year-old man was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, during protests on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in the same St. Louis-area city.
The victim was shot by four plainclothes detectives, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said. He is in surgery at a local hospital. Police said the victim fired at the officers during the incident and they returned fire.
The victim’s father identified him as Tyrone Harris Jr., a recent Normandy High School graduate who was “real close” with Brown, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Brown, 18, was fatally shot by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, who was never charged in the death . . .
Plainclothes detectives were in the area tracking a person they believed to be armed with a gun. The officers said the victim shot at police officers and returned fire from inside a van. The victim then ran and turned back, as the detectives exited their vehicle and shots were fired again. Four officers, who were wearing vests identifying them as police, fired at the victim again. (Read more from this story HERE)
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