FERGUSON, Mo. -- St. Louis County declared a state of emergency Monday as prosecutors filed charges against an 18-year-old who was shot and critically wounded by police Sunday night during demonstrations marking the death of Michael Brown last year.
Authorities said the shooting was not related to the protests, which continued into this morning in Ferguson and St. Louis. Several hundred people gathered Monday night on Ferguson's West Florissant Avenue, chanting and holding signs.
The emergency declaration, by St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, allows the county Police Chief Jon Belmar to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson.
"In light of last night's violence and unrest in the city of Ferguson and the potential for harm to persons and property, I am exercising my authority as county executive to issue a state of emergency, effective immediately," Stenger said.
"The recent acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger," he said.
Stenger later said he had not ruled out imposing an curfew on Ferguson.
Before Stenger made the emergency declaration, county prosecutors announced they had filed charges against Tyrone Harris Jr. of St. Louis, who police said was critically injured during a gunbattle with the police.
Harris was charged with five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and a firearms charge. All 10 are felonies. He remained in critical condition after he was struck by several bullets fired by St. Louis County police officers.
The shooting Sunday night happened after rival groups began firing at one another on the west side of West Florissant Avenue, the center of the Ferguson protests, Belmar said. He said there had been at least two other shootings in the area but that they were not connected to protests.
Belmar believes that the shots came from about six different shooters. The shooters included Harris, whom police had been watching out of concern that he was armed, Belmar said.
Four plainclothes officers saw Harris run across a parking lot on the opposite side of the avenue and drove their unmarked SUV toward him with the vehicle's interior lights flashing, authorities said. Harris responded by shooting at the officers, striking their vehicle several times, Belmar said. The officers returned fire from inside the SUV and then chased him on foot, he said.
Each of the four officers shot at Harris, who continued to fire at them, and Harris was struck by multiple bullets, Belmar said.
A gun that police recovered near Harris was a 9mm Sig Sauer that was reported stolen last year, authorities said. Belmar said the four detectives involved in the shooting had six to 12 years of experience, but he declined to provide their names or other information.
The officers were not injured. They were not wearing body cameras, Belmar said.
Harris' father called the police version of events "a bunch of lies." Tyrone Harris Sr. said two girls who were with his son told him that Harris was unarmed and had been drawn into a dispute involving two groups of people.
The elder Harris said his son was a close friend of Michael Brown and was in Ferguson on Sunday night to pay respects.
He said his son was caught up in a dispute and was "running for his life" after gunfire broke out.
"My son was running to the police to ask for help, and he was shot," he said. "It's all a bunch of lies. ... They're making my son look like a criminal."
Dozens arrested
Police arrested nearly two dozen people in Ferguson during the gathering that stretched into early today.
The protesters chanted, beat drums and carried signs. When some in the group moved into a traffic lane, officers in riot gear forced people out of the street. Some demonstrators threw water bottles and other debris at officers.
By 1 a.m. today, the crowd and police presence along West Florissant had begun to diminish. There were no apparent signs of conflict.
County police spokesman Shawn McGuire said approximately 23 arrests were made, though police were still confirming official totals.
There were no shots fired and no burglaries, looting or property damage during the protest, McGuire said in a statement. No smoke or tear gas was used, and no police or civilians reported injuries, he said.
Earlier outside the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse in downtown St. Louis, police arrested about 60 protesters on trespassing charges.
The protesters marched from Christ Church Cathedral to the courthouse. They arrived chanting "Black lives matter" and "We've got to fight back" and listened as clergy members spoke about injustices against blacks. After reading a proclamation calling for changes and equal treatment for all, some marchers climbed over a barrier in an attempt to deliver the list to Richard Callahan, the U.S. attorney for Eastern Missouri. Stopped by the police, they sat on the steps of the building.
After several warnings to disperse, police arrested Cornel West, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, and other protesters. Authorities planned to release them on a promise to appear later in court.
The Rev. Mike Kinman, dean at Christ Church Cathedral, told demonstrators their demands included disbanding the Ferguson Police Department. "What we believe is that what happened last night shows the necessity of action of the [Justice Department]. Despite the reports and studies that have been done, very little has changed."
Protesters on Monday evening blocked rush-hour traffic in both directions on Interstate 70 in the Earth City community.
Aerial footage from a KTVI-TV helicopter showed lines of protesters joining hands to block the highway. Protesters also set out barricades. One driver nosed an SUV through the line of people, with a protester kicking at the vehicle's door as it pushed against protesters.
Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum said police departments dispatched troopers and officers to the scene shortly after receiving reports of the shutdown.
About 5:40 p.m., most protesters cleared off the road and traffic began to move again. Others refused to move and were arrested.
Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement Monday that the violence represented "a sad turn of events."
The Ferguson Action Council, a coalition of protest organizations, said Monday that the police should not have sent plainclothes officers without body cameras to an area where protests were being held.
"After a year of protest and conversation around police accountability, having plainclothes officers without body cameras and proper identification in the protest setting leaves us with only the officer's account of the incident, which is clearly problematic," Kayla Reed, a field organizer with the Organization for Black Struggle, said in a statement.
Belmar said it is common to use plainclothes officers. In addition, there were more than 100 uniformed officers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Ferguson and St. Louis County police departments.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch voiced strong support Monday for the country's police officers, praising them as peacemakers and encouraging them to be part of the national conversation about improving relationships with minority groups.
The address to the national Fraternal Order of Police in Pittsburgh reaffirmed the Justice Department's support for law enforcement at a time of unease between police departments and the communities they serve.
"Recent events in communities across the country have served as stark and tragic reminders of the tensions that exist in too many neighborhoods between law enforcement officers and the people we serve," Lynch said. "One year after the tragic events in Ferguson, Mo., we have yet again seen the consequences for officers and residents when those tensions erupt into unrest and violence."
Lynch praised police for running toward danger when others head in the other direction and for "working to maintain the peace."
Also on Monday, a Washington Post reporter arrested while covering the protests last year has been charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer.
The Post reported Monday that national desk reporter Wesley Lowery was ordered to appear in court in St. Louis County on charges of trespassing and interfering with a police officer. The summons orders him to appear Aug. 24.
Lowery and Ryan Reilly, a journalist with the Huffington Post, were handcuffed last August inside a fast food restaurant that reporters were using as a staging area while covering the Ferguson protests.
Reilly said Monday that he had not received a summons but expects to be charged, the Post reported.
Information for this article was contributed by John Eligon and Mitch Smith of The New York Times; by Jim Salter, Alan Scher Zagier, Jim Suhr, Jeff Roberson and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press; and by Steve Giegerich, Lisa Brown, Kevin McDermott, Robert Patrick, Nicholas J.C. Pistor and Joe Holleman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
A Section on 08/11/2015