The Fresh York Times

August Ten, 2015

FERGUSON, Mo. — The St. Louis County executive announced a state of emergency here on Monday as officials and activists sought to regain control of the volatile streets after plainclothes police officers shot and critically wounded an 18-year-old black man who they said was firing on them late the night before.

The police said the man, Tyrone Harris Jr., was among two groups of youthful people who exchanged gunfire near peaceful protests late Sunday on the very first anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager who was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson. Prosecutors on Monday charged Mr. Harris, of the St. Louis suburb Northwoods, with ten counts, including four of felony attack on a law enforcement officer.

The declaration of a state of emergency by the county executive, Steve Stenger, empowered the county police force and its top commander, Chief Jon Belmar, to oversee police operations in and around Ferguson, where police units from surrounding towns arrived on Monday to bolster efforts to maintain tranquil. Gunfire on the fringes of demonstrations commemorating Mr. Brown’s death — which set off looting, arson and confrontations with the police last year — unnerved residents and demonstrators over the weekend.

“The latest acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger,” Mr. Stenger said in a statement. “Chief Belmar shall exercise all powers and duties necessary to preserve order, prevent crimes, and protect the life and property of our citizens.”

On Monday, protesters who had commemorated Mr. Brown via the weekend staged acts of civil disobedience across the region. They protested incarceration rates and prison contractors in Clayton, the county seat, and held a rally outside the federal courthouse in St. Louis, where almost five dozen people were arrested. Another sixty or so were arrested after blocking traffic for about thirty minutes during the evening rush on Interstate seventy in the St. Louis suburbs.

Around ten p.m., police officers and state troopers began to make arrests after some demonstrators did not clear West Florissant Avenue, which was scarred by vandalism and looting a year ago. There were isolated scuffles, and some frozen water bottles were hurled toward officers.

Interactive Feature | Ferguson | One Year Later The Times revisited the community to see what has and has not switched in the year since Michael Brown was killed.

Some protesters were not so quick to embrace the police version of the shooting of Mr. Harris, whose family has questioned whether he fired on the police or was even carrying a weapon. The authorities said they had recovered a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer next to Mr. Harris that was reported stolen last year.

Still, there seemed to be agreement among some protest leaders — many of whom were from the region, but others who had come into town to commemorate Mr. Brown — that much of the trouble has been caused by youthfull people with no connection to the demonstrations and who were stringing up out along the street.

“We continually talk and engage folks and attempt to help them understand what it is to actually be in confrontation, what resistance looks like, what organized resistance looks like versus like some of what happened last night,” Montague Simmons, the executive director of the Organization for Black Fight, said Monday. “Some of those folks were not there to protest, obviously. They were just there for their own reasons. I guess the point for us is making sure we’ve got enough people on forearm that when that happens, we’re able to help keep folks safe.”

Still, Mr. Simmons faulted the county’s decision to announce a state of emergency, warning that an overly aggressive police stance might provoke fresh unrest. Protest leaders had also criticized the police for showcasing up in riot gear late Sunday.

“The state of emergency is the result of county government’s unwillingness to control the police and authorities, who used excessive force on a crowd that was retreating as instructed,” he said in a statement.

The executive order will permit for certain staffing switches to bolster the police presence, a spokeswoman for Mr. Stenger said. It also could permit for a curfew to be put in place, tho’ that step has not been taken.

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Thousands of peaceful demonstrators commemorated Mr. Brown’s death with rallies, concerts, demonstrations and church services through the weekend. However both a local grand jury and federal prosecutors cleared the white police officer who killed him, Darren Wilson, of criminal wrongdoing, Mr. Brown’s death led to protests against police violence across the country and helped commence a national debate on law enforcement policies in minority communities.

On Sunday, the mood of the demonstrations commenced to become tense after a duo of people broke into a beauty supply store along West Florissant Avenue and several police cars responded, with officers lining up along the storefront. Dozens of protesters blocked traffic and commenced moving off the roadway to yell at the police officers. But when several squad cars raced to an intersection nearby and dozens of officers in riot gear formed a skirmish line, the demonstrators surged back into the street.

After an hourlong standoff, gunfire broke out about three hundred yards away in a de-robe mall where dozens of people who were not part of the protest were milling about.

Shots were being exchanged inbetween two groups, according to the police. Mr. Harris fired a handgun as he ran across West Florissant, the police said in court documents. Four plainclothes officers in an unmarked sport-utility vehicle drove toward Mr. Harris with the S.U.V.’s crimson and blue lights flashing, the police said, and he fired upon them. They got out and chased him, and after an exchange of gunfire, Mr. Harris was hit, the police said.

But Mr. Harris’s grandmother said that his gf, who was with him, told her that Mr. Harris was running across West Florissant to her car to escape gunfire.

The grandmother, Gwen Drisdel, said she did not know whether Mr. Harris was armed. It would not be unreasonable that he might carry a firearm because of how violent the streets are, she said, but added, “I don’t believe that he would disrespect police like that.”

Mr. Harris was a friend of Mr. Brown’s, Ms. Drisdel said, and he graduated from the same high school, Normandy, this year. Mr. Harris was searching for a job, she said, and was interested in truck driving.

No family members have been permitted to visit Mr. Harris in the hospital, she said. But she did learn that doctors were worried about a bullet near his spine that they might not be able to eliminate, she said. Mr. Harris was being held on a $250,000 cash bond.

Hours after Mr. Harris was wounded, two other teenagers were shot and wounded by an unknown assailant on Canfield Drive, where Mr. Brown was killed, according to the police. The authorities were still investigating whether there was a connection inbetween the shootings. The Police Department also said it deployed smoke canisters to disperse crowds on Canfield, however demonstrators said the substance was rip gas.

Some political leaders who have denounced the police in the past were not so critical in the wake of the latest violence.

“I didn’t see anything related to the shooting that I personally witnessed police treat improperly,” said Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman who was in the unwrap mall near where the gunfire originated Sunday night. “Based upon being out there and what I eyed and heard and even felt go whizzing by my head, it was not initiated by police. It was a violent encounter that then evidently spread across the street.”

State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat whose district includes Ferguson, said Monday that she was working to understand what led to the officer-involved shooting. The shootings reinforced the need for protesters to police themselves and ensure that demonstrations remain peaceful, she said.

“I want people who are interested in protesting to proceed doing that in a very peaceful way,” she said. “We also have to learn a lot of lessons and instruct.”

Alan Blinder contributed reporting from Ferguson, and Timothy Williams from Fresh York.

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