Michael Brown Sr yelling out as his son’s casket was lowered into the ground at St Peter’s Cemetery in St Louis, Missouri, on Monday. Photo: Reuters

More than 100 demonstrators marched in St Louis yesterday demanding the arrest of a white police officer who shot dead an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.

The death of Michael Brown, 18, focused global attention on the state of race relations in the United States and evoked memories of other racially charged cases, including the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012.

Family and supporters of Brown celebrated his life on Monday at a music-filled funeral service at a St Louis church that rang with calls for peace and police reforms.

The August 9 shooting sparked two weeks of demonstrations, some with violent clashes and scores of arrests, in which protesters demanded Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson be charged in Brown’s death. Demonstrations have been more subdued for days.

This community has had a story to tell for a long time and this has just been the catalyst

Yesterday, more than 100 people marched a few blocks from St Louis city hall to the federal court building, chanting “fired up, fed up, time that we stand up.”

The protesters, who called for Wilson’s arrest and the removal of Ferguson police leaders, were blocked from walking up the courthouse steps by a group of officers, most on bicycles.

Yesterday, few signs were visible at what has been the centre of the protests along West Florissant in Ferguson, a St Louis suburb.

A man under a gazebo sold T-shirts that read “Hands up, don’t shoot,” the chant favoured by demonstrators, as the temperature reached 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius) at midday.

People gathered in small groups at the impromptu memorial set up where Brown died and two women handed out food from a folding table.

“This community has had a story to tell for a long time and this has just been the catalyst,” said Chelsea Warlick, 29, a photographer from Savannah, Georgia. The majority of people in Ferguson are black, while most of its elected officials and police force are white.

Warlick, who laid white roses by the memorial, said she was about to sign a six-month lease on an apartment in the complex where Brown lived to support the community.

“The verdict is everything. If he doesn’t go to jail for what he did this place is going to burn,” she said of Wilson.

The Missouri National Guard, which began a gradual pullout from Ferguson on Friday, was absent from a spot on West Florissant they had occupied late on Monday.

Authorities have released few details about the shooting. A St Louis County grand jury has begun hearing evidence and the US Justice Department has opened its own investigation.

In differing accounts, police have said Brown struggled with Wilson, who shot and killed him. But some witnesses say Brown held up his hands and was surrendering when he was shot multiple times in the head and chest.