FERGUSON, Mo.— Tensions flared one again in Ferguson, Missouri Sunday, after police shot and critically wounded an 18-year-old man in what authorities are calling a justifiable use of force following an exchange of gunfire. What had started out as a peaceful day of protest marking the anniversary of last year’s killing of unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown, was suddenly transformed into a chaotic scene of violence causing authorities to declare a state of emergency.
You didn’t have to be there. Cameras of all kinds were rolling. Once again there was a young black man lying bleeding in the street. Police say the teenager, Tyrone Harris, who was taken to the hospital in critical condition, fired a weapon at four plainclothes officers. He was charged with multiple criminal counts, including “assault on law enforcement” and shooting at a motor vehicle. His bond was set at $250,000.
The day of civil disobedience was called by activists to protest the shooting of Brown and other unarmed black men across the U.S. by police. Fifty-seven people, including Princeton University professor and activist Cornel West, were arrested as they broke through barricades at a courthouse in St. Louis and blocked the entrance.
A group called Clergy United, was joined by civil rights groups in leading the peaceful crowd of than 100 people through city streets, chanting, “This is what democracy looks like” and “Black lives matter”.
Harris’ father said the 18-year-old had not shot at police, as officers claimed. He said his son was running away from the scene after shots were fired by someone else.
