Car hits protester in Ferguson, shots ring out

FERGUSON, Mo. — Gunshots rang out but hit no one after a car struck a protester during a peaceful demonstration in Ferguson, Missouri, on the second anniversary of Michael Brown’s death.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that a car drove into a group of protesters who were blocking a street during the demonstration Tuesday night to mark two years since the unarmed black 18-year-old’s fatal shooting by a white police officer. They said the car struck a young man so hard that he flew into the air.

“A lady came down and hit a protester — knocked the shoes off his feet,” said Sharon Cowan, who was at the scene. “Hit him, and he rolled and he bounced.”

Ferguson police said in a statement that several people chased the car and opened fire, striking the vehicle numerous times but not the driver. A second nearby car was also hit by gunfire. Police are asking for the public’s help to identify the shooting suspects.

Graphic video provided to AP by Heather De Mian, who was at the scene and frequently livestreams protests in the St. Louis area, showed a man hit by a car and thrown several feet as bystanders shriek.

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The man seemed badly injured and was put into a private car to be taken to a hospital, Cowan said.

Shots can be heard on the video less than a minute after the collision.

Spokesman Jeff Small told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch police don’t believe the driver intentionally struck the protester.

“By all accounts, her version of what happened seems to fit the version of what happened to a person driving down a busy West Florissant Avenue and not seeing a person standing there,” Small said.

By around 10 p.m., the protesters had disbanded. No arrests were made.

Earlier in the day, a few hundred people gathered for a memorial service and moment of silence along Canfield Drive at the spot where Brown was fatally shot by officer Darren Wilson after a confrontation on Aug. 9, 2014.

A state grand jury declined to press charges against Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department later cleared him, concluding that he had acted in self-defence. He resigned in November 2014.

Brown’s death led to months of sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson. It was also was a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, which rebukes police treatment of minorities and has grown following several other killings of black men and boys by police, such as Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Philando Castile in Minnesota.

The 2014 shooting also led to a Justice Department investigation that found patterns of racial bias in Ferguson’s police and municipal court system. The federal agency and the city agreed this year to make sweeping changes.

Brown’s father, also named Michael Brown, said in a brief speech during the memorial service that the anniversary was a sad day for him and his family, and for the world, too.

“My son built families up, opened the eyes of the world and let them know this ain’t right,” he said. “This colour is not a disease. This colour is beautiful. Black is beautiful.”

Jim Salter, The Associated Press