Police shootout at protest marking anniversary of Michael Brown's death

The anniversary of 18-year-old Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri, began with a solemn march in his honor and ended with a protest that grew increasingly confrontational before it was interrupted by gunfire.

Shots rang out around 11:15 p.m. Sunday as several hundred people gathered on West Florissant Avenue, the area hit by rioting and looting last year after Brown's killing by a Ferguson police officer. The sound sent demonstrators running for cover.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said a man who opened fire on officers is in “critical, unstable” condition after being struck when the officers returned fire.

Belmar said at a news conference early Monday morning that plainclothes officers had been tracking the man, who they believed was armed, during the protest.

Belmar says the man approached the officers, who were in an unmarked police van, and opened fire. The officers returned fire from inside the vehicle. They then pursued the man on foot.

The chief says the man again fired on the officers. All four fired back.

The man was taken to a hospital, where Belmar said. 

Tyrone Harris identified the victim as his son, Tyrone Harris Jr., 18, of St. Louis, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Harris said shortly after 3 a.m. that his son had just gotten out of surgery.

He said his son graduated from Normandy High School and that he and Michael Brown Jr. “were real close.”

Belmar said during the 2:30 a.m. press conference that there is a “small group of people out there that are intent on making sure we don't have peace that prevails. 

“We can't sustain this as a community,” he said, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Belmar said two groups of people exchanged gunfire on the west side of West Florissant Avenue at the same time the shooting took place. Forty to 50 shots rang out, Belmar said. “It was a remarkable amount of gunfire,” he said.

The people doing the shooting “were criminals,” Belmar said. “They were not protesters.”

Investigators recovered a stolen 9 mm Sig Sauer,  Belmar said.

The four detectives, who have six to 12 years of experience, will be placed on administrative leave, a standard practice after a shooting. They were not wearing body cameras, Belmar said.

The disturbances came after several hundred people gathered in Ferguson on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer that sparked protests and a national debate on race and justice.

Some pushed children in strollers as crowds of white, black, old and young people gathered at the spot in this mostly black St. Louis suburb where Brown, 18, was fatally shot on Aug. 9, 2014.

After four and a half minutes of silence to represent the roughly four and a half hours that Brown's body lay in the middle of the street after he was shot, two white doves were released. The crowd then started a silent march to honor Brown and others who have died at the hands of police. Rallies are planned in other cities, including New York.

Organizers of Sunday's events say their aim is to keep alive a national movement fueled by outrage at the police killing of Brown and other unarmed black men in U.S. cities including New York, Cincinnati, Baltimore and North Charleston, South Carolina.

At the memorial, Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., wore a T-shirt bearing his son's image and the slogan “Chosen for Change.” Others held “Black Lives Matter” banners and signs calling for justice for those killed by police.

Pausing along the route at a permanent memorial for his son, Michael Brown Sr. said, “Miss you.”

He had thanked supporters before the march for not allowing what happened to his son to be “swept under the carpet.”

St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, a prominent figure in the protest movement here, said before the program, “It’s an opportunity to see how far we have come in the last 365 days.” According to the Post-Dispatch, he noted that a large part of the crowd was white.

Later Sunday, a few hundred people turned out at Greater St. Mark Family Church in a ceremony to remember Brown, with his father joining other relatives sitting behind the pulpit.

After nightfall, several hundred protesters blocked traffic. An officer said through a bullhorn they would be arrested if they did not move.

Someone threw a glass bottle at officers but missed. Others cursed at officers.

For the first time in three nights of protests, some officers were dressed in riot gear, including bulletproof vests and helmets with shields.

In New York on Sunday, demonstrators lay on a Brooklyn sidewalk, maintaining their silence for a few moments before rising and joining others marching into Manhattan for another rally later in the day. Among those marching were a dozen people carrying a giant banner reading, “Black Lives Matter.”

Some who marched on Sunday wore T-shirts with likenesses of Brown or messages such as “Please stop killing us” or “Hands up! Don't shoot!” which became a rallying cry during the sometimes-violent protests that followed the shooting a year ago.

Brown Sr. had also led a parade involving several hundred people on Saturday. “At the end of the day, I still lost my boy,” Brown told reporters on Saturday. “I'm still hurting. My family's still hurting.”

The death of Brown and other African-American men in encounters with police sparked months of protests in Ferguson and around the United States. It also strengthened the “Black Lives Matter” movement that has cast a spotlight on long-troubled relations between police and minority residents of many U.S. cities.

The U.S. Justice Department and a St. Louis County grand jury cleared Officer Darren Wilson, who resigned in November, of wrongdoing. A separate Justice Department investigation of Ferguson's justice system found evidence of a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias by police.

Hours after the Saturday march attended by the elder Brown, hundreds — many with “Black Lives Matter” placards — took part in a similar processional in St. Louis in memory of VonDerrit Myers Jr., a black 18-year-old shot and killed last October by an off-duty St. Louis police officer. The city prosecutor in May announced the officer acted in self-defense after being fired upon by Myers. An attorney for Myers' family says Myers was not armed.

Brown's father said a lot of families in the St. Louis area and across the nation are hurting because they've lost loved ones to police violence. Though some groups are pledging civil disobedience in the St. Louis region, Brown urged everyone to mark his son's death in peace.

“No drama,” he said. “No stupidity, so we can just have some kind of peace.”

Al Jazeera and wire services