The federal government on Sunday took on an intensified role in investigating the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager, but violent unrest erupted once again Sunday night on the streets of this St. Louis suburb — and the National Guard is on the way. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued a terse statement ordering an independent autopsy of Michael Brown by a federal medical examiner — the third autopsy of the 18-year-old. The Justice Department took the action in response to what spokesman Brian Fallon called “the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case” and requests from Brown’s family. Brown was killed Aug. 9 by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. On Sunday evening, crowds gathered again. Capt. Ronald Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol said the evening began with peaceful protests that “took a very different turn after dark” as police deployed tear gas when protesters threw molotov cocktails and gunshots were fired at officers. Two people were injured in shootings, he said, but no officers were hurt. He said seven or eight people were arrested. In a news conference about 1:20 a.m., Johnson said unrest began at 8:25 p.m. when police responded to reports of gunshots near Canfield, the street where Brown was killed. At 8:56 p.m., hundreds of protesters marched toward a police staging command post in a parking lot near a Target. “There were multiple additional reports of molotov cocktails being thrown, police were shot at, makeshift barricades were set up to block police, bottles and rockets were thrown at police,” Johnson said. “Based on these conditions, I had no alternative but to elevate the level of our response.” washingtonpost/national/justice-department-orders-new-autopsy-of-michael-browns-body/2014/08/18/023a4d12-2694-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 11:40:11 +0000
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