US deploys National Guard in town riven by racial unrest
The US authorities have deployed National Guard troops in Ferguson, the Missouri town riven by racial unrest following the August 9 fatal police shooting of a black teen, amid fears of a fast deterioration of the situation with a preliminary autopsy revealing that the unarmed youth was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.
The findings of the private autopsy, conducted on Sunday at the instance of the victim’s family and first reported by The New York Times, could further inflame passions in the black-majority town where protesters have been demanding that the white officer in question be prosecuted for murder.
“The sheer number of bullets and the way they were scattered all over his body showed this police officer had a brazen disregard for the very people he was supposed to protect in that community,” an attorney for the victim’s family said, asserting: “This case is about a police officer executing a young unarmed man in broad daylight.”
Even before the autopsy findings were out late on Sunday night, the situation in the supposedly curfew-bound Ferguson worsened, with reports of gunfire, looting and hurling of Molotov cocktails, all of which prompted Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to announce deployment of the National Guard troops in the St louis suburb.
“Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organised and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and State, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk,” Nixon said in a statement.
While the family of Michael Brown, the slain youth, pressed ahead with the private autopsy as it had no faith in the one conducted by the local police, the Obama administration announced that Department of Justice would conduct its own autopsy because of “the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case and at the request of the Brown family”.
Citing Dr Michael M Baden, the former chief medical examiner for New York City, who conduct the private autopsy in Missouri on Sunday, the NYT reported that one of the bullets entered the top of the 18-year-old Brown’s skull. He went on to say that the bullets did not appear to have been shot from very close range because no gunpowder was present on his body.
“People have been asking: How many times was he shotIJ This information could have been released on Day One,” Baden was quoted as saying, adding: “They don’t do that, even as feelings built up among the citizenry that there was a cover-up. We are hoping to alleviate that.”
Ferguson authorities, who conducted their own autopsy at first, have not revealed details of how Brown was shot. Police Chief Thomas Jackson, however, had spoken of a struggle between Brown and the white police officer, Darren Wilson. According to him, the officer sustained facial injuries during the encounter.