National Guard deployed in Ferguson as race protests enter second week

World Today

Police wait to advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, during a protest for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer last Saturday in Ferguson, Missouri. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Missouri’s governor on Monday ordered the National Guard to a St. Louis suburb in which protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen passed the two week mark.

This follows police using tear gas to clear protesters off the streets well ahead of a curfew.

Clashes in Ferguson

Clashes on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri

Missouri’s governor on Monday ordered the National Guard to a St. Louis suburb in which protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen passed the two week mark. This follows police using tear gas to clear protesters off the streets well ahead of a curfew.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said the National Guard would help restore order to Ferguson, where protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer entered a second week. Police said they acted in response to gunfire, looting, vandalism and protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails.

The latest confrontations in Ferguson came on the same day that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on Brown, and as a preliminary private autopsy reported by The New York Times found that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday afternoon to discuss the situation. Both the U.S. Department of Justice and St. Louis County Police are investigating the shooting.

The Justice Department has already deepened its civil rights investigation into the shooting. Officials said 40 FBI agents were going door-to-door on Sunday gathering information in the Ferguson neighborhood where Brown was killed.

Brown’s death heightened racial tensions between the predominantly black community and the mostly white Ferguson Police Department. Civil rights activists have compared the shooting to other racially charged cases, especially the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was later acquitted of murder.

As night fell in Ferguson Sunday, another peaceful protest quickly deteriorated and the streets were empty well before the midnight curfew.

Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, who is command in Ferguson, said at least two people were wounded in shootings by civilians.

“These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes,” Nixon said.

Ferguson police waited six days to publicly reveal the name of the officer and documents alleging Brown robbed a convenience store shortly before he was killed. Police Chief Thomas Jackson said the officer did not know Brown was a robbery suspect when he encountered him walking in the street with a friend.

The officer who shot Brown, a six-year police veteran who had no previous complaints against him, has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.

Report compiled with information from Reuters and The Associated Press