US police said early yesterday they came under heavy gunfire and arrested 31 people during another night of racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman 10 days ago.
Demonstrations, mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence, have flared since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead while walking down a residential street on August 9.
State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, briefing reporters on Monday night’s violence, said “officers came under heavy gunfire” in one area.
“Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack,” he told a news conference.
Riot police had confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a petrol bomb.
Four officers were injured.
Johnson separately told CNN that two people were shot within the crowd, but not by police, and were taken to hospital.
There was no immediate word on their condition.
The violence has captured global headlines, raising questions about the state of US race relations nearly six years after Americans elected their first black President.
“This has to stop. I don’t want anybody to get hurt. We have to find a way to stop this,” said Johnson, an African-American who grew up in the area and took over security efforts after the mostly white local force was accused of using excessive force against blacks.
An overnight curfew was in place and the National Guard, the US state militia, has been deployed in the St Louis suburb of 21,000 people to stop looting and burning.
This has to stop
President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders have appealed for calm while a federal investigation into the shooting proceeds.
“While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police, only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos,” he said. “It undermines, rather than advancing, justice.”
US Attorney General Eric Holder will visit Ferguson today, he said.
Monday night’s clashes between riot police and protesters followed hours of mostly peaceful demonstrations, Reuters witnesses said.
Police had closed a roadway to traffic to provide a path for marches but said a smaller group within the crowd hurled bottles, rocks and petrol bombs at officers standing near armoured vehicles. They responded by firing gas-filled canisters and a noise cannon to try to disperse the throng.
Ferguson had a demographic shift in recent decades, going from all white to mostly black.