2 males injured in shooting near Brown monument

St. Louis County police officers respond in an MRAP vehicle after shots were fired during a protest march on August 9, 2015 on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri. He was struck and fell.

The suspect was taken to a hospital, where Belmar said he was in “critical, unstable” condition. He was not immediately identified.

Three county police officers suffered minor injured during Sunday night’s events.

The four officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.

Belmar says the police shooting happened shortly after dozens of shots rang out around 11:15 p.m. Sunday, as protesters were gathered on West Florissant Avenue.

“It’s troubling that people can’t exercise their rights b/c violent people want to disrupt peaceful protests”, Belmar added, at the conference.

The man who fired on officers had a semi-automatic 9MM gun that was stolen last year from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, according to the chief.

Police say that the initial outburst of gunfire seemed to be between two groups, with as many as six people firing. “There are a lot of emotions”.

“We can not continue, we can not talk about the good things that we have been talking about, if we are prevented from moving forward with this kind of violence”.

The anniversary of the killing, which cast greater scrutiny on how police interact with black communities, has sparked days of renewed protests, though until Sunday they had been peaceful and without any arrests.

But protesters – many of whom are skeptical of the local and federal inquiries into the case – point to the concrete examples of police misconduct exposed in the wake of Brown’s death.

For the first time in three consecutive nights of demonstrations, some officers were dressed in riot gear, including bullet-proof vests and helmets with shields.

Separately, police said a 17-year-old suspect has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon and one count of resisting arrest after he fired shots near the protesters late Sunday.

A moment of silence was held and protesters marched peacefully through the streets.

Tyrone Harris’ father later told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that his son was the victim of the shooting.

As events marking the anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown were winding down Sunday night, gunfire erupted in Ferguson, Mo., leaving a gunman in the hospital.

A grand jury didn’t indict Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department also declined to bring criminal charges, but the feds did issue a report that found the Ferguson Police Department and the city’s municipal court had engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discrimination against African-Americans, targeting them disproportionately for traffic stops, use of force and jail sentences.

Organizers of some of the weekend activities pledged a day of civil disobedience on Monday, but have not offered specific details.

St. Louis County Police say an officer who came under heavy gunfire returned shots amid a protest in Ferguson. Sunday marks one year since Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.

Bursts of gunfire shattered the face-off, sending police crouching behind their patrol cars and demonstrators scurrying for cover. However, an Associated Press photographer said he saw a man lying face down and covered in blood behind a restaurant, minutes after the shots were fired. It wasn’t immediately clear how badly the man was injured. Friends were consoling her. She screamed: “Why did they do it?”

St. Louis Public Radio reports that another shooting – a drive-by attack – took place at a nearby apartment building several hours after the violence at West Florissant Avenue.

His death at the hands of Darren Wilson sparked outrage and protests nationwide tensions grew over what demonstrators said was racial bias by the police.