Police in the United States city of Ferguson, Missouri, said a man was in critical condition on Monday after being shot by police in an exchange of gunfire on the sidelines of what had been a day of peaceful marches to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.
St. Louis County police chief, Jon Belmar, said plainclothes detectives had been monitoring a man they feared was armed, and that he was then involved in an exchange of 40 or 50 shots between two groups of people before shooting the officers’ unmarked vehicle multiple times, VOA said.
The four detectives all returned fire and the man was shot, Belmar said.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the man’s father identified him as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris Jr. and said he was a “close” friend of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was killed by police in Ferguson last year.
Belmar told a news conference that the outbreak of violence was “an impediment to positive change,” stressing that the shooting did not involve those demonstrating on the anniversary of Brown’s killing.
“They were criminals, they weren’t protesters,” Belmar said. “Protesters are people that are out there that are talking about a way to effect change, whatever that may be. That’s not what’s happening here.”
He said police first increased their presence in that area after reports of looting, and that some people threw bottles that shattered near officers. He also reported one officer was injured by a flying brick Sunday night in Ferguson.
Belmar said he believed the violence was avoidable, and that too many people in Ferguson were working too hard for it to happen.
“There are a lot of emotions, I get it, but this is something different and we can’t sustain this as a community as we move forward,” he said, asking for help in identifying those who go beyond peaceful protests.
No comments:
Post a Comment