ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Eight police officers were injured in clashes
with demonstrators in St Louis when a largely peaceful protest turned violent
in the early hours of Saturday after a Missouri judge acquitted a former white
police officer of murder in the 2011 fatal shooting of a black man suspected of
dealing drugs.
The clashes erupted when police confronted a small group of
demonstrators as the protest moved, over the course of the evening, from the
courthouse where the verdict was read to a busy nightlife neighbourhood.
After most protesters drifted away, a smaller group of individuals
police described as "agitators" lingered on the streets in an upscale
neighbourhood near the mayor's home, taunting officers who arrived in riot gear
by the busload.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the crowd as vandals
broke windows at a library, a restaurant and a home and threw bricks and water
bottles at officers.
"Reports of bricks thrown at police. That's not protest. That's a
crime. We stand behind our officers. This violence won't be tolerated,"
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said on Twitter.
With National Guard troops placed on standby, authorities urged calm in
the aftermath of a case reminiscent of the circumstances that spawned racially
charged unrest in the nearby suburb of Ferguson, giving rise to the Black Lives
Matter movement in 2014.
One group of demonstrators tried to climb onto Interstate 40 but were
blocked by police. Another group blocked an intersection by sitting down in the
street for six minutes of silence.
The outcry was prompted by Friday's verdict, rendered five weeks after
the conclusion of a non-jury trial, finding former city policeman Jason
Stockley, 36, not guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of
Anthony Lamar Smith, 24.
Smith was shot five times in his car after trying to flee Stockley and
his partner on Dec. 20, 2011, following an alleged drug deal, authorities said.
During the pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal
police car video he was going to kill Smith, prosecutors said.
At Stockley's direction, his partner, who was driving, slammed the
police cruiser into Smith's vehicle and they came to a stop, court documents
said. Stockley then approached Smith's car and opened fire with his service
weapon.
The former policeman believed Smith was armed, defence attorneys said,
and a gun was found in the car. But prosecutors argued Stockley planted the
weapon and that the gun had only Stockley's DNA on it.
(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Suzannah Gonzales
in Chicago, Chris Kenning in Louisville, Kentucky and Gina Cherelus in New
York; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Comments
Post a Comment