Missouri calls out its Guard; Holder to visit

Governor removes curfew

A man bends down in prayer as police try to disperse a small group of protesters Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by police has touched off rancorous protests in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb where police have used riot gear and tear gas. Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the National Guard to help restore order Monday, while lifting a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew that had been in place for two days. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
A man bends down in prayer as police try to disperse a small group of protesters Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by police has touched off rancorous protests in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb where police have used riot gear and tear gas. Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the National Guard to help restore order Monday, while lifting a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew that had been in place for two days. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Correction: Shawn Parcells assisted a privately hired pathologist who conducted his own autopsy of Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old fatally shot in August by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. This article, which appeared in editions on Aug. 19 and was based partly on Associated Press, reporting misidentified Parcells as a forensic pathologist.

FERGUSON, Mo. -- Gov. Jay Nixon lifted a curfew in this embattled city Monday, hours after deploying the Missouri National Guard, as officials struggle to control unrest that has paralyzed the community since an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer.

Also Monday, President Barack Obama said he has dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to meet with federal and local authorities in Ferguson.

The guardsmen's "limited mission" will be to protect the command post so local law enforcement officials can protect peaceful demonstrators, Nixon said in a statement. He condemned "the firing upon law enforcement officers, the shooting of a civilian, the throwing of Molotov cocktails, looting and a coordinated attempt to overrun the unified Command Center."

"With these additional resources in place," Nixon said, "the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement will continue to respond appropriately to incidents of lawlessness and violence, and protect the civil rights of all peaceful citizens to make their voices heard."

The authorities have been stymied in their efforts to quell the unrest in the street caused by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Nixon turned to the State Highway Patrol to oversee crowd control Thursday after Ferguson officials were criticized for heavy-handed tactics that included the use of tear gas and military-style vehicles. The state's less confrontational approach seemed to calm the crowds for one night, but tensions between the police and protesters have since surpassed levels seen earlier.

The National Guard normally deploys in support of law enforcement agencies as opposed to taking over, said James Carafano, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

"The first thing you want to do is you want to restore calm and a sense of order," he said. "When people think the system is spinning out of control and the system isn't there for them, then the cycle continues to escalate."

In Washington, Obama said Holder would go to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with officials. The president chastised the small number of violent protesters, saying they were undermining justice.

It's important to ensure that "peaceful protesters" have an opportunity to air their grievances, Obama said. At the same time, he said, law enforcement officers need to be able to protect communities against people who are using the unrest as an excuse for looting or violence.

"While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving into that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police, only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos," Obama said at the White House. "It undermines rather than advances justice."

Obama said he had talked to Nixon about the role of the Guard, adding, "I'll be watching over the next several days to assess whether it's helping rather than hindering."

Obama also said the amount of military-style equipment that local police forces have been receiving from the federal government needs to be reviewed. Numerous state and federal officials have said that the amount and scale of military-style equipment that the Ferguson Police Department displayed on the street in the first days of unrest worsened the situation.

The Federal Aviation Administration extended a ban on flights operating less than 3,000 feet over Ferguson through next Monday "to provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities."

Schools closed

On the street, law enforcement officials indicated Monday that they would take a different tack with protesters. People will not be allowed to congregate on the major thoroughfare that has been the center of the protests. They could walk, officials said, but not be stationary.

In federal court, a judge denied a request from the American Civil Liberties Union for a restraining order that would have prevented authorities from enforcing the rule.

At mid-morning Monday, about a dozen county and state lawmen told a small group that it could not gather at the QuikTrip convenience store that had been burned last week during protests over the death of Brown.

People could walk up and down the street to protest, the officers told the group, which included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, but they could not stand in one place.

Schools in the area were closed Monday. "Due to continuing unrest in some areas of Ferguson, and in the interest of the safety of students and families, all schools in the Ferguson-Florissant School District will be closed Monday," the school district announced. Officials said they have concerns about children walking to school or waiting for buses on streets affected by rioting.

As darkness fell Monday, National Guard units with armored vehicles were waiting at a staging area about a half-mile from the portion of West Florissant Avenue that has been the scene of the largest protests.

Closer to the protest site, a crowd of demonstrators was marching and growing in size. Sheriff's deputies in body armor and state troopers carrying wooden bats and gas masks stood watch over the group.

On Sunday night, hours before the start of the second night of a mandatory curfew Nixon had ordered Saturday, police officers came under assault from gunfire and firebombs and responded with their largest show of force so far.

Using a barrage of tear gas and smoke canisters, and firing rubber bullets and deploying hundreds of officers in riot gear to sweep the streets of protesters, the law enforcement officials had the situation largely under control by the time the curfew began at midnight.

Protesters said the police acted without provocation. But at a news conference about an hour into the curfew, Capt. Ronald Johnson, the Missouri State Highway Patrol officer brought in by the governor to take over security, blamed "premeditated criminal acts" that were intended to provoke the police.

"We had to act to protect lives and property," he said.

Johnson said that some demonstrators throughout Ferguson had opened fire on the police, hurled firebombs and looted and vandalized businesses.

It appeared that an attempted attack by some protesters on the shopping center the police have used as a command center prompted the severe response from authorities.

Johnson said that at 8:56 p.m., hundreds of protesters had descended upon the area of the command post. Soon, he said, "multiple Molotov cocktails were thrown at police." The police responded with tear gas.

Police in riot gear "came out in tanks and started shooting," said Lisha Williams, a 45-year-old from St. Louis who was in a crowd of protesters Sunday as the gas was deployed. "My face is still burning."

The captain said that after that episode, the police had received reports that a McDonald's restaurant had been seized by the demonstrators. Meanwhile, police officers were being targeted with bottles, Johnson told reporters.

"Based on these conditions, I had no alternative but to elevate the level of our response," he said.

A spokesman for the Highway Patrol said the authorities had made seven or eight arrests, and Johnson said he believed three people -- none of them police officers -- had been injured in the outbreak of violence.

Community and civic leaders who have been in Ferguson for the recent demonstrations said Monday that they were worried about another challenging night.

"We don't want a repeat of last night," said Akbar Muhammad of the Nation of Islam who is based in St. Louis County. "We want to ask people at sunset to go home. ... We're going to tell them it's a different dynamic out there with the National Guard, and we don't want them to get hurt."

On Ferguson's West Florissant Avenue, Toriano Johnson, a barber at Prime Time Barbershop, said the curfew backfired.

"You're trying to shut people up. That's not going to work," he said. "They'll go around the corner, but they won't go away. You can move them around, but it's still going to be a movement until justice is served."

Private autopsy

Also on Monday, Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned New York forensic pathologist who performed a preliminary autopsy commissioned by Brown's family, said his examination suggests that there was no sign of a struggle in Brown's death and that all but one of at least six gunshot wounds on the body were likely survivable.

Forensic pathologist Shawn Parcells, who assisted Baden during the private autopsy, said a bullet grazed Brown's right arm. He said the wound indicates Brown may have had his back to the shooter, or he could have been facing the shooter with his hands above his head or in a defensive position across his chest or face.

"We don't know," Parcells said. "We still have to look at the other [elements] of this investigation before we start piecing things together."

Baden also said there were abrasions on the right side of Brown's face, which he believes occurred when Brown was struck in the head with a bullet and fell to the ground. But to have a better sense of whether a struggle ensued shortly before Brown's death, he said, it will be important to examine the officer who shot him.

Baden's report suggested that Brown was shot from a distance of at least 1 to 2 feet, but he said he needs access to Brown's clothing before he can make a more definitive determination.

Attorney Benjamin Crump said the family asked for the independent autopsy because of uncertainty at the time over whether federal officials would conduct their own examination of Brown's body. "They did not want to be left having to rely on the autopsy done by the St. Louis law enforcement agencies, the same individuals they feel are responsible for executing their son in broad daylight," Crump said.

Crump said Baden's work so far is a "very preliminary" report. "We have to get all the witness statements out and look at all the autopsies, all the evidence, to put this picture together," he said.

The St. Louis County medical examiner's autopsy found that Brown was shot six to eight times in the head and chest, office administrator Suzanne McCune said Monday. But she declined further comment, saying the full findings weren't expected for about two weeks.

Information for this article was contributed by Alan Blinder and Tanzina Vega of The New York Times; by Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times; by Mike Dorning, Toluse Olorunnipa, Angela Greiling Keane, Del Quentin Wilber, Jef Feeley and Brian Chappatta of Bloomberg News; and by Alan Scher Zagier, Jim Salter, David A. Lieb, Nigel Duara and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/19/2014

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