State of emergency declared in Ferguson

During the gunfire, Harris crossed the street and apparently spotted plainclothes officers arriving in an unmarked van with distinctive red and blue police lights, Belmar said. Police used smoke to disperse the crowd. “It’s disrespectful”, said Talal Ahmad, 30, who is black and has been a fixture of the last year’s protests, which prompted a Justice Department review that found Ferguson’s police department routinely violated city residents’ civil rights.

According to police, a gunfight erupted between two rival groups in West Florissant Avenue and a suspect, whom they identified as Tyrone Harris, then shot at plain-clothes police who returned fire. Police charged Harris, 18, with four counts of assault on law enforcement in the first degree, five counts of armed criminal action, and one count of discharging or shooting a firearm at a motor vehicle.

Meanwhile, the unrest in Ferguson reportedly forced Fox TV to cancel its “Empire” bus tour that was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in St. Louis.

The death triggered a wave of protests over alleged racism and the use of excessive force by police officers and triggered the Black Lives Matter movement. Police formed a line across the road, and some pelted them with water bottles, while other demonstrators urged people to remain peaceful. Harris was struck multiple times and is hospitalized in critical condition.

There were no shots fired and no burglaries, looting or property damage during the protest, McGuire said in a statement.

By early Monday evening, hundreds of people had gathered.

A separate group of protesters shut down traffic in both directions on I-70 during the late afternoon rush hour Monday. Some of them held yellow signs that said, “Ferguson is everywhere”. That’s when Belmar directly approached the protesters and made it clear they needed to stop. Police were quick to point out her ID showed she was 18.

The warning appeared to be a reference to the violence that broke out on Sunday night and sparked the next 24-hours of protests and mass arrests. Stenger expressed a similar view. The Southern Poverty Law Center described the Oath Keepers as a “fiercely anti-government, militaristic group”.

The shooting of Mr Brown – and a subsequent decision not to indict Officer Wilson – led to violent unrest and set off nationwide protests and intense scrutiny of heavy-handed police tactics in a series of cases that ended in the deaths of unarmed blacks.

John Karriman, a representative of the group who has taught at the Missouri Southern State University police academy and ran unsuccessfully as a Libertarian Party candidate for county sheriff in southwest Missouri, did not immediately respond to a cellphone message seeking comment. Johnson took over after the county’s initial response was criticized as too heavy handed.

St. Louis city police have not been involved in security so far this year.