FERGUSON, Mo. -- Activists pushed into St. Louis City Hall on Wednesday to protest a grand jury decision not to indict a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teen in nearby Ferguson, as residents and business owners in Ferguson spent the day cleaning up after two nights of protests.
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Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the St. Louis municipal building, shouting "Shame. Shame." Some then entered the building, and police carrying riot shields quickly responded to what one officer called an "unlawful assembly."
More than 100 additional police officers were called to the building, and it was locked down. As many as five people were arrested, officials said.
Those who made it inside City Hall were part of a group of about 300 protesters who marched and held a mock trial of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown during an Aug. 9 confrontation in the St. Louis suburb.
The shooting led to weeks of protests over the summer, and Monday's announcement of the grand jury's action has led to more protests.
An influx of National Guardsmen helped make the second night of protests much calmer than the first, when several buildings were set ablaze. There were 58 arrests Tuesday night at area protests, including 45 in Ferguson and 13 in St. Louis.
Demonstrators took to the streets again Tuesday night, but there were hundreds of additional troops standing watch over neighborhoods and businesses. Police officers used some tear gas and pepper spray, and demonstrators set a squad car on fire and broke windows at Ferguson City Hall.
"I think, generally, it was a much better night," said Jon Belmar, the St. Louis County police chief.
Then, referring to Monday night's unrest, he added, "That was a scale that, fortunately, is seldom seen here in this country."
On Wednesday, about a dozen people doing cleanup were painting over boarded-up windows on businesses in the suburb's downtown, where National Guardsmen were stationed every few feet and some looked down from rooftops.
The toll from Monday's protests -- 12 commercial buildings burned to the ground, plus eight other blazes and a dozen vehicles torched -- prompted Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to send in a large contingent of extra National Guard troops.
The governor ordered the initial force of 700 to be increased to 2,200 in the hope that their presence would help local law enforcement keep order.
Guard units protected the Ferguson Police Department and left crowd control, arrests and use of tear gas to local officers.
Some streets that were overrun Monday night were deserted Tuesday night, except for the occasional police cruiser or National Guard vehicle. Some Guard crews monitored empty parking lots. Convoys of National Guard Humvees were seen driving around town.
"There's no people, only military and police," said Carlos McDuffie, 38, who shook his head as he surveyed the scene. "This could turn into a nasty war. We're losing. The people, Americans."
Belmar said other people in the city might be grateful for the Guard's presence.
"In many ways, while it's perhaps alarming to some folks, I think at the same time it's probably comforting to some, because it allows us to gain that measure of control," Belmar said.
While Ferguson's commercial area was quiet Tuesday night, one television reporter said he was assaulted near where Brown was shot.
Marcus DiPaola, a journalist for Xinhua News Agency, said he and a reporting crew were working around 7:30 Tuesday night when 15-20 people, some of them armed, demanded that they stop filming. He said members of the group smashed the windows of his car, took the key and pointed a gun at his videographer's head.
None of the journalists were hurt, DiPaola said, and they left the scene on foot until a church van delivering Thanksgiving turkeys stopped to give them a ride.
In addition to the unrest in Missouri, demonstrations were held throughout the country for a second night Tuesday. Some were peaceful, such as in New York, where Union Square was the jumping-off point for a protest that splintered into smaller groups that walked to Times Square and the entrances of the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges.
Hundreds of Seattle high school students walked out of classes, and several hundred people marched down a Cleveland freeway ramp to block rush-hour traffic.
Other events weren't as calm. In Oakland, Calif., a crowd of protesters smashed windows at car dealerships, restaurants and convenience stores. In Portland, Ore., police used pepper spray and made arrests after about 300 people disrupted bus and light rail traffic by walking across a Willamette River bridge.
In Boston, dozens of people were arrested during a march that drew an estimated 1,500 people. And in Kansas City, about 100 protesters marched through an upscale shopping district to an entertainment area, where they encountered police barricades. A photographer for The Kansas City Star was among several people arrested.
Officer's appearance
While the streets in Ferguson and elsewhere were calmer Wednesday, the war of words over the shooting escalated.
Wilson said in a television interview Tuesday night with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he feared for his life when he fatally shot Brown. Wilson said there was nothing he could have done differently and that he would have shot a white person in the same circumstances. He also disputed witness accounts that Brown at one point put his hands up in the air.
In TV appearances Wednesday, Brown's parents disagreed with Wilson's version of the confrontation.
"I don't believe a word of it," Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said on CBS This Morning.
"I know my son ... far too well to -- he would never do anything like that. He would never provoke anyone to do anything to him, and he wouldn't do anything to anybody. I don't believe a word of it," she said.
Wilson had told the grand jury that Brown reached into the police car and grabbed the officer's gun before the shooting. That account "sounds crazy," Michael Brown Sr. said on NBC's Today program.
"For one, my son, he respected law enforcement," Brown said. "Two, who in their right mind would rush or charge at a police officer that has his gun drawn? It sounds crazy."
Wilson also had said Brown had a "crazy" look on his face and that he looked like "a demon" before Wilson shot him.
"When you have people of color being killed, they try to demonize and play on the stereotypes, and they try to put the police officer who killed our children on a pedestal," Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump said on NBC. "It's just not right, and we have to fix this system."
Later Wednesday, Brown's parents joined relatives of Eric Garner and Akai Gurley, two other unarmed black men who recently died at the hands of police, at an event with the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York to pray for justice.
Attorneys for the Brown family have said the grand jury process was rigged from the start to clear Wilson. One of them, Anthony Gray, suggested that the office of the county's top prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, presented certain testimony to discredit the process, including from witnesses who did not see the shooting.
The Brown family attorneys said they hope an ongoing federal civil-rights investigation leads to charges. But federal investigations of police misconduct face a steep legal standard, requiring proof that an officer willfully violated a victim's civil rights.
Testimony from Wilson that he felt threatened and the physical evidence in the case would likely complicate any efforts to seek federal charges, experts said.
Under federal law, "you have to prove as a prosecutor that the officer knew at the moment that he pulled the trigger that he was using too much force, that he was violating the Constitution," said Seth Rosenthal, a former Justice Department civil-rights prosecutor.
The Justice Department has also launched a broad probe into the Ferguson Police Department, looking for patterns of discrimination.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the department aims to complete those investigations as quickly as possible.
The Brown family also has not ruled out filing a wrongful-death lawsuit against Wilson.
Wilson, who remains on paid administrative leave from the Ferguson Police Department, told ABC on Wednesday that his life has been stressful since the shooting. He said he grew a beard to hide his identity.
"You're always looking, you're always wondering if someone'll recognize you, if someone is following you. Just every possibility you can think of," Wilson said.
He said it is unclear whether he can return to work at the Police Department.
"I'm not sure it's possible. I mean, you think they would accept me? You think it'd be safe for me?" Wilson asked.
Information for this article was contributed by Jim Salter, Jim Suhr, Andale Gross, Alan Zagier, Phillip Lucas Sadie Gurman, Ann Sanner, Kantele Franko, Jeff Baenen, Olga R. Rodriguez, Deepti Hajela, Ula Ilnytzky, Nigel Duara, Joseph White, Jonathan Lemire and staff members of The Associated Press; by John Eligon, Manny Fernandez and Jack Healy of The New York Times; by Michael Muskal and James Queally of the Los Angeles Times; and by staff members of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 11/27/2014