Clutching red roses, singing hymns and chanting quietly, hundreds of residents of a St. Louis suburb were back in the streets Monday to protest the police shooting of Michael Brown, as autopsy results indicated the 18-year-old was shot six times, and National Guardsmen stood at the ready in case the rally turned violent.
The tone late in the evening was more somber than unruly, however, as demonstrators of all ages, including several clergyman, marched under the watchful eye of dozens of police officers.
Police closed off several blocks of the Ferguson street where most of the last few days’ unrest has unfolded, but many converged there all the same. After calling in the National Guard, state governor Jay Nixon lifted a curfew for the area.
Police tackle a man who was walking down the street in front of McDonald’s on Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The man appeared to be walking past a group that had been assembled nearby and police were telling everyone to keep walking. Moments after he turned around and exchanged words with the police that he was just walking, police took him to the ground. Although there is no curfew in order tonight, police are strictly enforcing protestors to keep moving along the sidewalk or they are subject to arrest. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Laurie Skrivan)
Officers did not wear the military-style garb that had angered many protesters earlier, but many of the predominantly white contingent had truncheons, gas masks and plastic handcuffs slung from their belts.
The Guardsmen were nowhere to be seen, but a helicopter with a powerful spot light hovered overhead.
Elliott Wilson, who grew up in Ferguson and held a sign saying “Hands up, don’t shoot,” said he came because he often experienced police harassment as a youth, and is worried what police might some day do to his son, four-year-old Michael.
“If I get a call saying something happened to him, what am I going to do?” said the 23-year-old, now a teacher in Bellofount, Mo. “It hurts that I could get a call that my baby boy has died .”
Missouri National Guard personnel position themselves prior to offering location support for law enforcement at the Missouri Highway Patrol command center at the Plaza Boulevard Shopping Center in Ferguson, Missouri on August 18, 2014. Michael Brown, the black teen whose killing by a Missouri police officer has prompted more than a week of unrest, was shot at least six times, pathologists retained by his family said Monday. “Six bullets struck, and two may have re-entered” the 18-year-old’s body, said Michael Baden, tasked by Brown’s family and lawyers to conduct an independent examination on his remains. One of the bullets hit the top of Brown’s head, another struck his eye, while others were located on his right arm, Baden told a press conference. (Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images)
Mr. Wilson said he doesn’t condone the more violent episodes of some recent nights, but believes they served a purpose.
“If it didn’t happen, no one would pay attention to it.”
Members of local clergy, including a great uncle of Michael Brown, said they came to show their support for the cause, but also to try to help keep the peace.
- Photos: Protests over Missouri teen shot by police officer
“This is the symptom of a greater disease and that disease is unemployment, it’s the separation of races … It’s economic isolation,” said Rev. Charles Ewing, Mr. Brown’s relative. “And all those things need to be addressed if we’re going to have a just society that’s going to ensure these kinds of things don’t happen again.”
The pastors had trouble competing with another visitor to the site: rap star Nelly. A large crowd followed him and the media that surrounded him as police shunted them off the street.
Rapper Nelly joins demonstrators protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown as they make their voices heard on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters have been vocal asking for justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on August 9th. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
An independent autopsy performed on Mr. Brown, 18, found he was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, pathologists and attorneys hired by the family said earlier in the day.
The pathologists said Mr. Brown was hit in his right arm either when he put his hands up or when his back was turned to the shooter, but that they were unable to tell which.
Another autopsy conducted by St. Louis County found he was shot six to eight times, including in the head and chest.
In Washington, President Barack Obama said he was sending Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson to meet U.S. law enforcement authorities investigating the shooting. The president added most of the protesters were peaceful, but a small minority of looters was undermining justice for Mr. Brown.
During a brief pause in his summer vacation, Mr. Obama expressed sympathy for the “passions and anger” sparked by the young man’s death, but said giving in to that anger through looting and attacks on police would only stir tensions and lead to further chaos.
Overcoming the mistrust endemic between many communities and their local police would require people to “listen and not just shout,” he said.
“That’s how we’re going to move forward together, by trying to unite each other and understand each other and not simply divide ourselves from one another.”
Mr. Holder will meet officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Justice Department who are independently investigating the death.
The president said he also had told Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon the use of the National Guard to help calm tensions in the St. Louis suburb must be limited, and he would be monitoring the operation to see whether the guard’s involvement was helping or hurting.
Kenneth McClain kneels in the street during a protest Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by police Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
The Aug. 9 shooting has touched off rancorous protests in Ferguson, where police have used riot gear and tear gas. Mr. Nixon ordered the National Guard in to restore order Monday, while lifting a midnight-5 a.m. curfew that had been in place for two days.
Mr. Brown’s death has heightened racial tensions between the predominantly black community and the mostly white police department.
Civil rights activists have compared the shooting to other racially charged cases, especially the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot by a Florida neighbourhood watch organizer.
Police have revealed little about the encounter between Mr. Brown and Darren Wilson, except to say there was a scuffle in which the officer was injured and Mr. Brown was shot. Witnesses say the teenager had his hands in the air as the officer fired multiple rounds.
Getty Images staff photographer Scott Olson is placed into a paddy wagon after being arrested by police as he covers the demonstration following the shooting death of Michael Brown on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters have been vocal asking for justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on August 9th. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Forensic pathologist Dr. Shawn Parcells, who assisted former New York chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden during the independent autopsy, said a graze wound on Mr. Brown’s right arm could have occurred in several ways: He may have had his back to the shooter, or he could have been facing the shooter with his hands above his head or in a defensive position in front of his face.
“But we don’t know,” Dr. Parcells said.
Dr. Baden said one of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when he suffered the fatal injury. The pathologists said the teen, who also was shot four times in the right arm, could have survived the other bullet wounds.
Dr. Baden said there was no gun-powder residue on the body, indicating he was not shot at close range. However, he added he did not have access to the man’s clothing, which might show residue.
A grand jury could begin hearing evidence Wednesday to determine whether Mr. Wilson, should be charged in the death.
National Post and The Associated Press
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