Eight police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators in St Louis when a largely peaceful protest turned violent this morning after a Missouri judge acquitted a former police officer of the murder of a black man suspected of dealing drugs.
The clashes erupted when police confronted a small group of demonstrators as the protest moved over the course of the evening, from the courthouse where the verdict was read to a busy neighborhood.
After most protesters drifted away, a smaller group of individuals, whom police described as "agitators", lingered on the streets in an upscale neighborhood near the mayor's home, taunting officers who arrived in riot gear.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the crowd as vandals broke windows at a library, a restaurant and a home, and threw bricks and water bottles at officers.
Protesters also threw rocks and paint at the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, said Acting Police Commissioner Lawrence O'Toole.
Nine city officers and a state trooper were injured and at least 23 people were taken into custody, he said.
Three officers were reportedly taken to hospital.
"Reports of bricks thrown at police. That's not protest. That's a crime. We stand behind our officers. This violence won't be tolerated," Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said on Twitter.
Reports of bricks thrown at police. That's not protest. That's a crime. We stand behind our officers. This violence won't be tolerated.
— Eric Greitens (@EricGreitens) September 16, 2017
With National Guard troops placed on standby, authorities urged calm in the aftermath of a case reminiscent of the circumstances that spawned racially charged unrest in the nearby suburb of Ferguson in 2014.
One group of demonstrators tried to climb onto an Interstate road but were blocked by police.
Another group blocked an intersection by sitting down in the street for six minutes in silence.
The outcry was prompted by Friday's verdict, rendered five weeks after the conclusion of a non-jury trial, finding former city policeman Jason Stockley, 36, not guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith.
Smith was shot five times in his car after trying to flee Stockley and his partner on 20 December 2011, following an alleged drug deal, authorities said.
Prosecutors said that during the pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal police car video he was going to kill Smith.
Court documents said at Stockley's direction, his partner, who was driving, slammed the police cruiser into Smith's vehicle and they came to a stop. Stockley then approached Smith's car and opened fire with his service weapon.
The former policeman believed Smith was armed, defense attorneys said, and a gun was found in the car. But prosecutors argued Stockley planted the weapon and that the gun had only Stockley's DNA on it.
