(Newswire.net — August 11, 2015) — St. Louis, Missouri – About 200 demonstrators gathered in Ferguson, waving flags, beating drums and shouting anti-police slogans, clashed with the anti-riot police, causing city officials to proclaim the state of emergency, Reuters reported.
Police in riot gear clashed with protesters who had gathered in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, early on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of last year’s event when police officer Darren Wilson shot 18-year-old black teen Michael Brown, and was declared not guilty, which sparked riots.
While a more aggressive group of demonstrators started to throw objects at the police and beganpushing against their shields, the real violence erupted Sunday when two groups of agitators apparently began shooting at each other, Reuters reported.
Four officers, who pulled up in an unmarked vehicle, chased and shot a gunman, later identified as Tyrone Harris, a friend of Michael Brown.
Seriously wounded, Harris was admitted to the hospital, and is in critical condition. Meanwhile, the police said Harris was firing from his gun at their vehicle, and charged him with four counts of assault on law enforcement, five counts of armed criminal action, and one count of shooting at a vehicle.
His bond was set at $250,000.
Harris’s father, however, claims that his son did not have a gun.
“He was running for his … life because someone was shooting at him,” Tyrone Harris, Sr., said in a telephone interview from his St. Louis-area home.
Reportedly, Harris was out on bail awaiting trial on charges of stealing a motor vehicle, theft of a firearm and resisting arrest, but he was released after posting a $30,000 bond on Dec. 19. According to “Black Life Matters” activists, it is highly unlikely for one out on parole to shoot at police, adding that the out of uniform officers who shot Harris should never have been deployed to the scene.
The incident sparked riots on the streets of Ferguson, threatening to escalate to the level of the ones that happened last year. In order to prevent the escalation of violence, city officials declared a state of emergency in St. Louis.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who deployed the National Guard to quell violence last year, did not make any mention of additional security for those rallies, calling Sunday’s violence “a sad turn of events.”