One person shot, 7 arrested amid renewed clashes
With no let-up in racial tensions over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri more than a week ago, the authorities have declared a state of emergency and imposed a night-time curfew.
In overnight clashes, one person was shot and critically injured — not by the police but apparently by someone from the crowd — and seven others were arrested as protesters defied curfew imposed after looting of a liquor store in the town the previous night.
Incensed by police disclosures that Michael Brown, the slain teenager, was involved in a robbery, albeit unrelated to the subsequent shooting, people in the black-majority town are demanding that the officer who shot him be held accountable and charged with murder.
Amid chants of “hands up, don’t shout” to highlight the charge that the police officer resorted to an unprovoked killing of the 18-year-old Brown, some of the protesters were emphatic that the officer, Darren Wilson, must be prosecuted for murder if peace is to return to the community.
Defying the curfew imposed at midnight, protesters gathered in strength and police began to use smoke bombs in the early hours of Sunday in a bid to disperse the crowds amid reports of a shooting near a popular barbecue outlet. The police said one person was critically injured in the shooting. The shooter remained at large.
Hours earlier, in the light of the previous night’s chaos and looting, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon had declared a state of emergency and announced a five-hour night-time curfew till further orders.
“This is not to silence the people of Ferguson, but to address those who are drowning out the voice of the people with their actions,” Nixon said.as he made the announcement at a news conference, adding: “We will not allow a handful of looters to endanger the rest of this community. If we’re going to achieve justice, we must first have and maintain peace.”
“The eyes of the world are watching. This is the test of whether a community, this community, any community, can break the cycle of fear, distrust and violence, and replace them with peace, strength and, ultimately, justice,” he said.
Tensions that began with the shooting death of Brown on August 9 began to peak with the police releasing footage of a video surveillance on the robbery at a local convenience store that showed the teenager pushing aside the store clerk and walking away with a box of cigars worth $50.
Although Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson clarified that there was no connection between the robbery and the shooting a little later as the officer had no knowledge of the episode, an attorney representing the teenager’s family said his parents were outraged at the police attempt to “assassinate the character of their son”.
Following a directive from President Barack Obama, the FBI has begun its own investigations into the circumstances of the shooting.