Cissy
08-13-2014, 06:42 AM
At about 1 a.m., a St. Louis County Police officer shot and critically wounded a man who police said pointed a handgun at the officer near the intersection of West Florissant and Chambers Road.
The shooting happened near Chambers and Sheffingdell Court, not far from the site of protests against police over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. The location is less than a mile from the QuikTrip on West Florissant that was looted and burned Sunday night.
Police said they received a call reporting about four to five men in the area armed with shotguns and wearing ski masks. They also got reports of shots fired in the area. Police officers arrived and saw "multiple subjects running," said police spokesman Officer Brian Schellman.
An officer approached one of the men and he pulled a handgun on the officer who then fired, Schellman said.
Police said they recovered the handgun at the scene. The man was taken to a hospital.
Officers cleared the shooting scene shortly before 5 a.m. By 6:30 a.m., the streets were quiet and school buses were running.
UPDATED at 1:15 a.m.
About 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, a woman was shot in the head in the 1300 block of Highmont Drive, west of West Florissant Avenue near the QuikTrip gas station, St. Louis County Police said. It appeared to be a drive-by shooting and police said they were looking for four or five men. The woman was shot once and is expected to survive. It was unknown if the shooting was related to the protests in the area.
Protesters seemed to have mostly left the area but a crowd gathered at West Florissant and Chambers Road shortly after midnight, facing off with a line of police officers. Police deployed tear gas into the crowd as they advanced east.
Our earlier story:
FERGUSON • At two meetings with distinctly different tones, the call Tuesday night was for justice.
Packed houses at two churches heard speakers discuss the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, 18, by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday afternoon — a killing that has rocked that suburb and drawn international attention to St. Louis.
At Christ the King United Church of Christ near Black Jack, speakers included Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who told the standing-room audience, “Justice must not simply be pursued, but in fact achieved. Instead of burning bridges in anger, we must rebuild them with love.”
The racially diverse audience of about 400, many of whom were ministers, politely applauded the speakers, even Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, who told them, “I want what you want. I want the truth and I want justice and I want it as soon as possible.”
The other assembly at Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church on Chambers Road east of Ferguson also was standing-room. It also was much louder and less formal — rocking at times — and the audience chanted and cheered as they waited for the Rev. Al Sharpton to speak.
SHARPTON PUTS ST. LOUIS IN SPOTLIGHT
JUSTICE DEARTMENT GETS MORE INVOLVED
MCCLELLAN: ALL KILLINGS SHOULD STIR OUTRAGE
HACKER ACTIVISTS TARGET FERGUSON
BLACKS ARE VAST MAJORITY OF FERGUSON TRAFFIC STOPS
HELPING KIDS COPE WITH EXPOSURE TO OUTRAGE
PEACEFUL PROTESTERS STRUGGLE TO BE HEARD
When he took the pulpit, he led them in a thunderous chant, “No justice, no peace.” He noted that Ferguson has only a few black police officers and that most of the arrests are of black people.
“You’ve got issues in this city,” Sharpton said. People jumped to their feet when he spoke of seeking the truth and said, “As soon as you turn on the lights, the roaches start running.”
Outside the church on Chambers, several hundred people marched back and forth, their leaders urging everyone to be peaceful. A man yelled into a bullhorn, “The whole world is watching... We are going to do this the right way. No violence, just justice.”
At the church in Florissant, other speakers included Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III and the pastor, the Rev. Traci Blackmon, who said, “We are here because we will not rest until we have justice.” Also attending were St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Police Chief Sam Dotson.
After the speeches, members of the audience asked questions. Someone asked why the Ferguson officer’s name hasn’t been released. St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch responded, “It’s a matter of protocol. We don’t release names until charges are filed.”
STILL TENSE
Across the area Tuesday, events remained peaceful, if occasionally tense.
Shortly after 6 p.m., more than 100 protesters gathered near the hulk of the QuikTrip at 9240 West Florissant Avenue, which was looted and burned during violence Sunday night and has been ground zero for the protests ever since. It also was where police in riot gear formed in sturdy formations and fired tear gas into a crowd Monday evening, scattering that night’s protest.
On Tuesday evening, protesters again chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot” — a rallying cry of the string of protests since Saturday. Riot police, backed by SWAT armored vehicles, blocked West Florissant. The crowd then marched toward the church where Sharpton was to speak.
Dominque Bishop, 22, of Florissant, said she was marching for her two brothers. “It could have been one of my siblings,” Bishop said.
Later in the evening, another crowd had again gathered at the QuikTrip but by about 11:30 p.m. it had mostly dispersed.
There has been no violence since the looting rampage overnight Sunday.
For the most part, the talk Tuesday was more redress, less outrage. From the Old Courthouse downtown to the White House in Washington, the calls were for nonviolence. President Barack Obama issued a statement urging Americans to remember Brown through “reflection and understanding.”
“We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds,” Obama said. “Along with our prayers, that’s what Michael and his family, and our broader American community, deserve.”
On the steps of the Old Courthouse on Tuesday morning, Sharpton stood with Brown’s family and their lawyer and said people “want answers,” but should pursue them peacefully.
“I know you are angry,” he told the gathering on the courthouse steps. “I know this is outrageous ... But we cannot be more outraged than his mom and dad. If they can hold their heads in dignity, then we can hold our heads up in dignity.”
U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., whose district includes Ferguson, called for an “expanded” federal investigation to specifically explore “the potential for any pattern or practice of police misconduct by the Ferguson Police Department.”
At the place where Brown was killed in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive, his parents and other relatives gathered briefly Tuesday afternoon and released about a dozen red balloons. Then they walked to his grandmother’s apartment, which they said had been his destination when he was shot Saturday afternoon.
In Clayton on Tuesday morning, police closed Carondelet Avenue near the county Justice Center during a march by about 250 people.
“Hey hey, ho ho, racist cops have got to go,” some in the crowd chanted. They also complained that there aren’t enough African-Americans working as police officers and in the prosecutor’s office.
Clayton police cars were inching along, trailing protesters as they snaked through the streets that surround the county police headquarters and courthouse. March leaders demanded that authorities release the name of the Ferguson officer, fire and charge him.
County police officials said Tuesday they had not fired rubber bullets Monday, as some protesters had claimed. Neither did assisting St. Louis officers, a spokeswoman said. Five people were treated for minor injuries at DePaul Health Center after the demonstrations Monday evening, a spokeswoman said.
Also Tuesday, McCulloch announced that nine people were charged with felony burglary, accused of looting Sunday night at three Ferguson stores along West Florissant — the Princess Beauty Supply, the Footlocker and the Nu Fashion Beauty Supply.
Charged were Beonca McGrath, 19, of the 4400 block of Jennings Station Road in Pine Lawn; Michael L. Davis, 27,of the 8300 block of Wabash Avenue in Berkeley; Robert Lee Stephenson, 28, of the 9500 block of Guthrie Avenue in Woodson Terrace; Trey T. Brewer, 18, of Dallas; Nikko Fiertag, 23, of the 9300 block of Clarion Drive in Ferguson; Andrew Henry, 30, of the 4100 block of Appleberry Lane in Berkeley; Steven C. Martin, 27, of the 8800 block of Maya Lane in Ferguson; Stephon D. Thompson, 19, of 5700 block of Goodfellow Boulevard in St. Louis; and DeMarco Harris, 38, of the 1200 block of Gimblin Avenue in St. Louis.
McGrath and Harris also were charged with misdemeanor possession of a stolen hair weave, and Fiertag was charged with misdemeanor stealing of a pair of sneakers.
The felony charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years.
BUSINESSES REOPEN
Repairs continued along the looted district, and some businesses in Ferguson reopened Tuesday, including both locations that had been damaged and those that were closed as precaution. Zisser Tire & Auto, which was ransacked, reopened. So did a Taco Bell nearby. But others, including Shoe Carnival and AutoZone, remained closed.
Looting occurred Sunday night along West Florissant and at some stores to the north near Interstate 270, including the Walmart. Fear of fast-traveling replays caused some stores in Brentwood to close early Monday evening.
Ferguson City Hall was closed Tuesday morning due to “safety concerns,” but classes began in the Jennings School District, just east of Ferguson. The Jennings district had canceled classes on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration barred private aircraft, including news helicopters, from the airspace over Ferguson for the next week. Commercial aircraft are exempt. The county police department made the request.
Shortly before midnight Monday, a group of 30 to 40 people in a caravan of vehicles attacked and looted a Shoe Carnival store near Gravois Avenue in south St. Louis, far from Ferguson, St. Louis police said. Covering their faces with shirts, they smashed windows and stole shoes and other merchandise.
The group also tried to break into a nearby Radio Shack also in Gravois Plaza, in the 3500 block of Bamberger Avenue. An unarmed security guard saw the attacks and called police.
A police spokesman said it wasn’t known whether the attack was related to Ferguson, but called the tactics of mass burglary unusual. Mayor Francis Slay said city police were “closely watching incidents” for any connections.
Spokesmen at several area gun shops said sales had jumped, and they attributed the change to the violence in Ferguson.
At Metro Shooting Supplies in Bridgeton, “Sales have been absolutely amazing for three days,” said general manager John Stephenson.
Al Rothweiler, an owner of Mid America Arms at 8205 Gravois Road in South County, said sales were up about 50 percent. “The things that have gone on have made people act,” Rothweiler said, although he added, “I don’t like selling on fear.”
Koran Addo, Tim Barker, Kim Bell, Jesse Bogan, Nancy Cambria, Joel Currier, Stephen Deere, Lilly Fowler, Ian Froeb, Jim Gallagher, Steve Giegerich, Valerie Schremp Hahn, Joe Holleman, Jeremy Kohler, Ken Leiser, Samantha Liss, Chuck Raasch and Michael Sorkin, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/another-police-shooting-in-ferguson/article_7fb366f0-2f29-5bdd-b18b-34c9d8c688e7.html
The shooting happened near Chambers and Sheffingdell Court, not far from the site of protests against police over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. The location is less than a mile from the QuikTrip on West Florissant that was looted and burned Sunday night.
Police said they received a call reporting about four to five men in the area armed with shotguns and wearing ski masks. They also got reports of shots fired in the area. Police officers arrived and saw "multiple subjects running," said police spokesman Officer Brian Schellman.
An officer approached one of the men and he pulled a handgun on the officer who then fired, Schellman said.
Police said they recovered the handgun at the scene. The man was taken to a hospital.
Officers cleared the shooting scene shortly before 5 a.m. By 6:30 a.m., the streets were quiet and school buses were running.
UPDATED at 1:15 a.m.
About 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, a woman was shot in the head in the 1300 block of Highmont Drive, west of West Florissant Avenue near the QuikTrip gas station, St. Louis County Police said. It appeared to be a drive-by shooting and police said they were looking for four or five men. The woman was shot once and is expected to survive. It was unknown if the shooting was related to the protests in the area.
Protesters seemed to have mostly left the area but a crowd gathered at West Florissant and Chambers Road shortly after midnight, facing off with a line of police officers. Police deployed tear gas into the crowd as they advanced east.
Our earlier story:
FERGUSON • At two meetings with distinctly different tones, the call Tuesday night was for justice.
Packed houses at two churches heard speakers discuss the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, 18, by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday afternoon — a killing that has rocked that suburb and drawn international attention to St. Louis.
At Christ the King United Church of Christ near Black Jack, speakers included Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who told the standing-room audience, “Justice must not simply be pursued, but in fact achieved. Instead of burning bridges in anger, we must rebuild them with love.”
The racially diverse audience of about 400, many of whom were ministers, politely applauded the speakers, even Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, who told them, “I want what you want. I want the truth and I want justice and I want it as soon as possible.”
The other assembly at Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church on Chambers Road east of Ferguson also was standing-room. It also was much louder and less formal — rocking at times — and the audience chanted and cheered as they waited for the Rev. Al Sharpton to speak.
SHARPTON PUTS ST. LOUIS IN SPOTLIGHT
JUSTICE DEARTMENT GETS MORE INVOLVED
MCCLELLAN: ALL KILLINGS SHOULD STIR OUTRAGE
HACKER ACTIVISTS TARGET FERGUSON
BLACKS ARE VAST MAJORITY OF FERGUSON TRAFFIC STOPS
HELPING KIDS COPE WITH EXPOSURE TO OUTRAGE
PEACEFUL PROTESTERS STRUGGLE TO BE HEARD
When he took the pulpit, he led them in a thunderous chant, “No justice, no peace.” He noted that Ferguson has only a few black police officers and that most of the arrests are of black people.
“You’ve got issues in this city,” Sharpton said. People jumped to their feet when he spoke of seeking the truth and said, “As soon as you turn on the lights, the roaches start running.”
Outside the church on Chambers, several hundred people marched back and forth, their leaders urging everyone to be peaceful. A man yelled into a bullhorn, “The whole world is watching... We are going to do this the right way. No violence, just justice.”
At the church in Florissant, other speakers included Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III and the pastor, the Rev. Traci Blackmon, who said, “We are here because we will not rest until we have justice.” Also attending were St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Police Chief Sam Dotson.
After the speeches, members of the audience asked questions. Someone asked why the Ferguson officer’s name hasn’t been released. St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch responded, “It’s a matter of protocol. We don’t release names until charges are filed.”
STILL TENSE
Across the area Tuesday, events remained peaceful, if occasionally tense.
Shortly after 6 p.m., more than 100 protesters gathered near the hulk of the QuikTrip at 9240 West Florissant Avenue, which was looted and burned during violence Sunday night and has been ground zero for the protests ever since. It also was where police in riot gear formed in sturdy formations and fired tear gas into a crowd Monday evening, scattering that night’s protest.
On Tuesday evening, protesters again chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot” — a rallying cry of the string of protests since Saturday. Riot police, backed by SWAT armored vehicles, blocked West Florissant. The crowd then marched toward the church where Sharpton was to speak.
Dominque Bishop, 22, of Florissant, said she was marching for her two brothers. “It could have been one of my siblings,” Bishop said.
Later in the evening, another crowd had again gathered at the QuikTrip but by about 11:30 p.m. it had mostly dispersed.
There has been no violence since the looting rampage overnight Sunday.
For the most part, the talk Tuesday was more redress, less outrage. From the Old Courthouse downtown to the White House in Washington, the calls were for nonviolence. President Barack Obama issued a statement urging Americans to remember Brown through “reflection and understanding.”
“We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds,” Obama said. “Along with our prayers, that’s what Michael and his family, and our broader American community, deserve.”
On the steps of the Old Courthouse on Tuesday morning, Sharpton stood with Brown’s family and their lawyer and said people “want answers,” but should pursue them peacefully.
“I know you are angry,” he told the gathering on the courthouse steps. “I know this is outrageous ... But we cannot be more outraged than his mom and dad. If they can hold their heads in dignity, then we can hold our heads up in dignity.”
U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., whose district includes Ferguson, called for an “expanded” federal investigation to specifically explore “the potential for any pattern or practice of police misconduct by the Ferguson Police Department.”
At the place where Brown was killed in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive, his parents and other relatives gathered briefly Tuesday afternoon and released about a dozen red balloons. Then they walked to his grandmother’s apartment, which they said had been his destination when he was shot Saturday afternoon.
In Clayton on Tuesday morning, police closed Carondelet Avenue near the county Justice Center during a march by about 250 people.
“Hey hey, ho ho, racist cops have got to go,” some in the crowd chanted. They also complained that there aren’t enough African-Americans working as police officers and in the prosecutor’s office.
Clayton police cars were inching along, trailing protesters as they snaked through the streets that surround the county police headquarters and courthouse. March leaders demanded that authorities release the name of the Ferguson officer, fire and charge him.
County police officials said Tuesday they had not fired rubber bullets Monday, as some protesters had claimed. Neither did assisting St. Louis officers, a spokeswoman said. Five people were treated for minor injuries at DePaul Health Center after the demonstrations Monday evening, a spokeswoman said.
Also Tuesday, McCulloch announced that nine people were charged with felony burglary, accused of looting Sunday night at three Ferguson stores along West Florissant — the Princess Beauty Supply, the Footlocker and the Nu Fashion Beauty Supply.
Charged were Beonca McGrath, 19, of the 4400 block of Jennings Station Road in Pine Lawn; Michael L. Davis, 27,of the 8300 block of Wabash Avenue in Berkeley; Robert Lee Stephenson, 28, of the 9500 block of Guthrie Avenue in Woodson Terrace; Trey T. Brewer, 18, of Dallas; Nikko Fiertag, 23, of the 9300 block of Clarion Drive in Ferguson; Andrew Henry, 30, of the 4100 block of Appleberry Lane in Berkeley; Steven C. Martin, 27, of the 8800 block of Maya Lane in Ferguson; Stephon D. Thompson, 19, of 5700 block of Goodfellow Boulevard in St. Louis; and DeMarco Harris, 38, of the 1200 block of Gimblin Avenue in St. Louis.
McGrath and Harris also were charged with misdemeanor possession of a stolen hair weave, and Fiertag was charged with misdemeanor stealing of a pair of sneakers.
The felony charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years.
BUSINESSES REOPEN
Repairs continued along the looted district, and some businesses in Ferguson reopened Tuesday, including both locations that had been damaged and those that were closed as precaution. Zisser Tire & Auto, which was ransacked, reopened. So did a Taco Bell nearby. But others, including Shoe Carnival and AutoZone, remained closed.
Looting occurred Sunday night along West Florissant and at some stores to the north near Interstate 270, including the Walmart. Fear of fast-traveling replays caused some stores in Brentwood to close early Monday evening.
Ferguson City Hall was closed Tuesday morning due to “safety concerns,” but classes began in the Jennings School District, just east of Ferguson. The Jennings district had canceled classes on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration barred private aircraft, including news helicopters, from the airspace over Ferguson for the next week. Commercial aircraft are exempt. The county police department made the request.
Shortly before midnight Monday, a group of 30 to 40 people in a caravan of vehicles attacked and looted a Shoe Carnival store near Gravois Avenue in south St. Louis, far from Ferguson, St. Louis police said. Covering their faces with shirts, they smashed windows and stole shoes and other merchandise.
The group also tried to break into a nearby Radio Shack also in Gravois Plaza, in the 3500 block of Bamberger Avenue. An unarmed security guard saw the attacks and called police.
A police spokesman said it wasn’t known whether the attack was related to Ferguson, but called the tactics of mass burglary unusual. Mayor Francis Slay said city police were “closely watching incidents” for any connections.
Spokesmen at several area gun shops said sales had jumped, and they attributed the change to the violence in Ferguson.
At Metro Shooting Supplies in Bridgeton, “Sales have been absolutely amazing for three days,” said general manager John Stephenson.
Al Rothweiler, an owner of Mid America Arms at 8205 Gravois Road in South County, said sales were up about 50 percent. “The things that have gone on have made people act,” Rothweiler said, although he added, “I don’t like selling on fear.”
Koran Addo, Tim Barker, Kim Bell, Jesse Bogan, Nancy Cambria, Joel Currier, Stephen Deere, Lilly Fowler, Ian Froeb, Jim Gallagher, Steve Giegerich, Valerie Schremp Hahn, Joe Holleman, Jeremy Kohler, Ken Leiser, Samantha Liss, Chuck Raasch and Michael Sorkin, all of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/another-police-shooting-in-ferguson/article_7fb366f0-2f29-5bdd-b18b-34c9d8c688e7.html