Police Shooting Protests Expand Across St. Louis
Tense but peaceful protests over Michael Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings in Missouri and elsewhere stretched across the St. Louis region Friday as organizers urged hundreds of participants to avoid arrest so that they could return for a weekend of demonstrations.
The four-day event called Ferguson October began Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office in Clayton and renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed. A grand jury is reviewing the case.
The demonstrations moved to Ferguson Friday night as protesters stood inches from officers in riot gear before demonstrators disbursed. Many then went to the site of a police shooting in St. Louis, where another demonstration is planned Saturday. By 2 a.m. Saturday, St. Louis police had blocked a main road that crosses an interstate highway near Saint Louis University’s medical complex, but the heavy police restrictions didn’t keep hundreds more — including many newcomers from across the country who joined local residents — from marching in the streets.