A day of peaceful commemoration of the second anniversary of Michael Brown’s death was marred Tuesday night when gunfire broke out after a protester was struck by a motorist.
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Witnesses told an Associated Press reporter Tuesday night that a auto sped through a group of protesters who were blocking a street.
Crowds ducked for cover when the gunshots rang out after a vehicle hit a protester who was at the demonstration to remember the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a white police officer in 2014.
He said there were bullet holes in the auto, but no-one was injured.
The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 sparked the Black Lives Matter campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the killings of black men and women by police officers. They said the vehicle struck a young man so hard that he flew into the air and his shoes were knocked off.
A $20 million federal lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of four people arrested during protests following the death of Brown accuses the city of Ferguson and its attorneys of constitutional violations and malicious prosecution.
The demonstrations spread to other USA cities after a jury decided not to charge police officer Darren Wilson over the killing.
The high-profile case attracted national attention with police officer Darren Wilson firing 12 times – although it is unclear how many bullets hit 18-year-old brown.
A state grand jury declined to press charges against Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department later cleared him, concluding that he had acted in self-defence. It led to months of sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson. He resigned in November 2014. Brown’s father said the shooting “opened the eyes of the world”.
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It also spurred the “Black Lives Matter” movement that has cast a spotlight on long-troubled relations between police and minority residents in many US cities. “This color is not a disease”. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
