Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) stood behind his decision to order the midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew, after a night marked by gun violence, tear gas and armored vehicles on the streets, the latest wave of protest over the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The shooting has made this town of 21,000 people the epicenter of a national debate about race and justice in African American communities.
"Last night's curfew - I think everybody worked well," Nixon said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We're always disappointed when things aren't perfect. But thousands of people spoke last night, thousands of people marched, and [there was] not a single gunshot fired by a member of law enforcement last night."
Capt. Ronald Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, who is overseeing security in Ferguson and had earlier mingled with protesters, took a new tack Sunday, calling the police response "proper" and saying he was "disappointed" in the actions of the demonstrators. A highway patrol spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the curfew would be extended for another night.
In Washington, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued an unusual statement ordering an independent autopsy of Brown's body by a federal medical examiner. Spokesman Brian Fallon said the Justice Department was responding to requests from Brown's family and "the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case." Brown was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson.
© UnknownClashes intensified as police enforced a new midnight curfew after the governor declared a state of emergency.
Holder's announcement, coming one day after revelations that additional FBI agents had been dispatched to Ferguson, was the latest signal that the federal civil rights investigation of Brown's death is escalating. The federal probe is running parallel to the state investigation, and federal officials had said they were deferring to state officials.
It was unclear on Sunday whether that had changed.
The new developments came after another wild evening in Ferguson that ended with a shooting victim, seven arrests and a heavy early-morning rain that finally helped clear the streets.
Johnson said early Sunday that a large force was deployed amid a curfew and protests after police received a report that an unknown assailant had shot a person.
Officers had learned through intelligence sources that a group of armed protesters was holed up in a barbecue restaurant. By the time police arrived, the shooting victim, whom Johnson did not identify, had been taken to a hospital by protesters. The victim was in critical condition, he said.
Tear gas was fired, Johnson said, after officers spotted a man with a handgun in the middle of the street. The man with the gun fled, and officers did not arrest any armed protesters. However, seven people were arrested and charged with "failure to disperse," he said. A shot also was fired at a police car, Johnson said, though it was unclear whether the vehicle was hit.
When the five-hour curfew ended Sunday at 5 a.m., the streets were quiet. But less than an hour after the curfew had begun, police were battling protesters in the streets where Brown was killed.
Hundreds of protesters stood in the middle of Ferguson's main avenue under heavy rain early Sunday, minutes after the curfew went into effect at midnight.
The crowd chanted "No justice, no curfew!" and "Hands up, don't shoot!"
At 12:41 a.m., police shouted over a loudspeaker: "You are violating a state-imposed curfew. You must disperse or you will be subject to arrest or other actions."
Some people in the crowd left. Others shouted expletives at the police.
Then came disorder.
At 12:49 a.m., police fired tear gas canisters and devices that produced smoke. Protesters ran. Some were handcuffed. Shots were fired. Police sirens wailed.
By 1:30 a.m., a plume of smoke rose over West Florissant Avenue, the street where Brown took some of his final steps. The smell of smoke was in the air. Explosions erupted every 10 minutes or so - more canisters that made loud bangs.
Police in riot gear blocked the entrance to the main road. They held shields and pointed rifles, shouting for people to clear the road. Many dispersed.
Law enforcement officers in black gloves pushed television cameramen out of the street as they tried to capture images of a man with his hands restrained behind his back being led into an idling police van.
"You're violating the law," a law enforcement officer said over a loudspeaker.
Brandon Sneed, 22, a recording artist who lives in Walnut Park, a nearby neighborhood in northwest St. Louis, remained on the street.
"I can't find my brother," Sneed shouted as he ran in the rain.
He said he defied the curfew because "it's bulls---. There is no justice."
He said that he did not know Brown but that "we are all Mike Brown. By that, I mean all people. We are the 99 percent. But the 1 percent rule the world."
Timothy J. Booker, 27, who works in store management, said: "The curfew was a test. But there will be no peace if there is no justice. I've been here every night since Sunday. They tear-gas the innocent. I've seen a grandmother get tear-gassed. They don't care who they hit."
Booker held up an American flag upside down. "After Trayvon Martin, everybody turns the flag upside down because it shows there is no justice," he said. "George Zimmerman got away with murder. The justice system is backward. So we turn the flag upside down."
By 2:45 a.m., the police had succeeded in turning much of Ferguson into a ghost town. A heavy downpour puddled on streets emptied of inhabitants. Two officers ran down West Florissant, shedding gas masks without breaking stride. The flashing lights of dozens of police vehicles reflected off of a rain-slicked pavement.
"This is not our community!" an onlooker said. She made a peace sign with her right hand, then talked of "revolution." She wouldn't say her name.
A lot of people who have spoken to reporters in Ferguson won't give their names. They're scared or suspicious or both.
The confrontation early Sunday followed Nixon's declaration on Saturday of a state of emergency and the overnight curfew. In a heated press conference, the governor told a group of shouting residents that order must be restored after days of protests.
The governor's action came as the attorney for a key witness described the shooting of Brown as an execution-style slaying. Lawyer Freeman Bosley Jr. said Dorian Johnson, a friend of Brown's, told the FBI that Officer Wilson confronted the two before the shooting because they were walking in the middle of the street.
Wilson cursed at the pair and ordered them onto the sidewalk, Bosley told The Washington Post. When they refused to comply, he said, the officer grabbed Brown's throat through the window of his cruiser, pulled out a pistol and shot him. Wilson then chased Brown, shot him in the back and shot him five to six more times as Brown's hands were raised, Bosley said.
Neither Ferguson police nor the FBI responded to requests for comment on Bosley's account.
The account, combined with Nixon's declaration, made for another day of chaos and confusion in this small community, which has been whipsawed for days as police initially put down protests in a paramilitary fashion, then vowed cooperation with demonstrators, and are now cracking down again.
The anger still coursing through the community was visible at Nixon's news conference Saturday. The governor said he had signed an executive order imposing the extraordinary measures in an effort to find a balance between the protesters' First Amendment rights and the community's safety.
Noting that most protesters on Friday night had been peaceful, Nixon said he "cannot allow the ill will of the few to undermine the goodwill of the many, while putting the people and businesses of this community in danger.''
"This is not to silence the people of Ferguson,'' Nixon said, "but to address those who are drowning out the voice of the people with their actions. We will not allow a handful of looters to endanger the rest of this community.''
But after his opening remarks, Nixon quickly lost control of the crowd, with the images being recorded for a national television audience.
"You need to charge that police [officer] with murder!'' one person yelled. Others demanded to know how the curfew would be enforced. "Going to do tear gas again?" someone asked.
When Nixon began answering that "the best way for us to get peace" was for everyone to go home and get a good night's sleep, another resident interrupted him, shouting: "We don't need sleep! We need justice!"
The crackdown was triggered by more scenes of chaos on the streets of Ferguson late Friday night and into Saturday morning. In the main stretch of downtown, which had been tranquil the day before, at least four businesses were looted and reporters were threatened by a small group of rioters. Police deployed tear gas and flash grenades, which dispersed many but seemed to further incite the angriest in the crowd.
Yet the renewed protests were apparently triggered by the actions of the authorities, who have been wrestling for days with how to balance public safety with the right of demonstrators to assemble. On Friday, Ferguson police had named Brown as the prime suspect in the robbery of a convenience store that occurred just before the shooting, and they released a video of the robbery. The footage showed someone they identified as Brown towering over the store clerk and menacing the person, images that were circulated nationwide and drew a sharp rebuke from Brown's family.
The video's release was criticized by the highway patrol and came over the objections of federal authorities, a law enforcement official told CNN on Saturday. The Justice Department had said that distributing the images would heighten tensions in the community, but Ferguson police released it anyway, the official said.
Nixon on Sunday added his voice to that criticism, saying on CBS's "Face the Nation" that it had an "incendiary effect."
Wesley Lowery and Colby Itkowitz in Washington contributed to this report. Markon reported from Washington.
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