Police come under gunfire, 31 arrested
US President Barack Obama issued an appeal for calm and healing in the racially-charged town of Ferguson in Missouri, even as the local police came under heavy gunfire on Monday night with no let-up in protests over the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown 10 days ago.
The authorities deployed the National Guard troops, but lifted the curfew which prompted a new wave of protests close on the heels of autopsy revelations that the youth had been shot at least six times, including twice in the head.
Police did not fire a single shot on Monday night despite coming under heavy attack, but took 31 protesters into custody.
“While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns and even attacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos,” Obama told a White House news conference, stressing: “It undermines, rather than advancing, justice.”
Obama sought to assure the black community that the Justice Department has opened an independent federal civil rights investigation into the death of Brown. “They are on the ground and, along with the FBI, they are devoting substantial resources to that investigation. The Attorney General (Eric Holder) himself will be travelling to Ferguson on Wednesday,” he said.
The country’s first African-American President went beyond the Ferguson episode and spoke of the need to improve race relations. “We’ve made extraordinary progress, but we have not made enough progress,” he said and pointed to the “gulf of mistrust” existing between local residents and law enforcement in many communities.
At the same time, Obama conceded that he would have to be “very careful about not prejudging these events before investigations are completed”, adding: “When they’re conducting an investigation I’ve got to make sure that I don’t look like I’m putting my thumb on the scales one way or the other.”
Not much has been heard from Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot Brown and has since been put on administrative leave. But the Ferguson police quoted him as saying that he had asked Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson, to move off the street where they were walking, and onto the sidewalk. Wilson has spoken of an altercation over this, with Brown trying to snatch his gun.
Johnson, while confirming that he and Brown had taken part in the theft of cigars from a convenience store a little earlier that day, has said that Brown put up his hands to surrender, but the police officer got out of his car and shot him several times.
On the contrary, a woman called a St. louis radio station on Monday, claiming to be a friend of Wilson said she wanted to recount the officer’s side of the story. Identifying herself as Josie, the woman said it was Brown who reached for Wilson’s gun during the altercation and, at one point, had it turned against the officer’s hip. Brown started to “bum rush” the officer and kept coming at him, full-speed, prompting the officer to start shooting, she said. CNN reported that this account seemed to match a version of events the officer gave to investigators.