In the ensuing protest, several businesses were looted, including a check-cashing store, a boutique and a small grocery store. People took items from a sporting goods store and a cellphone retailer, and carted rims away from a tire store. Some climbed atop police cars as the officers with riot shields and batons stood stoic nearby, trying to restrict access to the most seriously affected areas.
Deanel Trout, a 14-year resident of Ferguson, said he was convinced the troublemakers were largely from outside Ferguson and that they had used Brown’s death and the vigil as an opportunity to steal.
“Most came here for a peaceful protest but it takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. … I can understand the anger and unrest but I can’t understand the violence and looting,” Trout, 53, said.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said there were no reports of injuries as of about 11 p.m. But there were scattered reports of assaults into the very early morning. Pat Washington, a spokeswoman for Dooley, said tear gas had been used. Authorities would not immediately confirm media reports of gunfire.
“The small group of people are creating a huge mess,” Mayor James Knowles said. “Contributing to the unrest that is going on is not going to help. … We’re only hurting ourselves, only hurting our community, hurting our neighbors.”
Earlier Sunday, a few hundred protesters gathered outside Ferguson Police headquarters. Some marched into an adjacent police building chanting “Don’t shoot me” while holding their hands in the air. Officers stood at the top of a staircase, but didn’t use force; the crowd eventually left.
In a new development, the shadowy Internet hactivist group Anonymous says they will be monitoring the behavior of the police dealing with protesters in the incidents and will attack Ferguson’s police department web and technology accounts if they don’t treat protestors to the letter of the law. They have also tweeted their support of the unoffical version of the shooting thus far.
An Internet hashtag #IfWeWereGunnedDown is trending in response to the Brown shooting. It is young people showing pictures of themselves doing various things – smoking, having fun, looking “menacing” next to graduation pictures, military pictures in uniform and more, to make the point that the media may misrepresent them to suit an agenda if they were killed.
Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, said she didn’t understand why police didn’t subdue her high school graduate son with a club or stun gun, and that the officer involved should be fired and prosecuted.
“I would like to see him go to jail with the death penalty,” she said, fighting back tears.
The killing drew criticism from some civil rights leaders, who referred to the 2012 racially charged shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was acquitted of murder charges.
“We’re outraged because yet again a young African-American man has been killed by law enforcement,” said John Gaskin, who serves on both the St. Louis County and national boards of directors for the NAACP.
Ferguson’s population of about 21,000 people is almost 70 percent black. The race of the officer has not been disclosed. He has been placed on paid administrative leave.
St. Louis County Police Department is in charge of the investigation, and Dooley said he will request an FBI investigation. The U.S. Justice Department said Attorney General Eric Holder instructed staff to monitor developments.
