FERGUSON, Mo., (Reuters) – Rioting broke out for a second night in Ferguson, Missouri, despite calls yesterday for calm from the mother of a black teenager who was shot to death by police during the weekend.
Police clad in riot gear released tear gas to disperse a crowd estimated in the hundreds gathered near a building that burned during Sunday night’s rioting, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said.
Jackson said officers were focused on dispersing the crowd, which was much smaller than the night before, but were making arrests and reported being fired on at some locations. “They are shooting at us now,” Jackson said, adding that officers from 10 to 15 jurisdictions were assisting Ferguson.
Michael Brown, 18, was shot to death in the mostly black St Louis suburb of Ferguson on Saturday afternoon after what police said was a struggle with a gun in a police car. The FBI opened a probe into the racially charged case. A witness in the case told local media Brown had raised his arms to police to show he was unarmed before being killed.
“He just graduated and was on his way to college,” said Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, speaking through tears at a news conference. She said her first-born son’s first day back at school would have been Monday.
