US police killing of black youth triggers protest by hundreds
Police killing of a black youth triggers a tense scene, and vows of a thorough investigation
The shooting of a black teenager sent hundreds of angry residents on to the streets of this predominantly black are in the US state of Missouri in a confrontation with police that lasted several hours.
They shouted obscenities and some threats, such as "kill the police", but there were no reports of additional injuries.
The teenager's grandmother, Desiree Harris, saw the recent high school graduate running near her home on Tuesday afternoon when she passed him in her car. Minutes later, she found his body on the street, fatally shot by a police officer.
Harris said she was expecting her grandson, Michael Brown, 18, to visit her that afternoon and discovered him dead after she heard the commotion outside the apartment complex in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis.
"He was running this way," she said. "When I got up there, my grandson was lying on the pavement. I asked the police what happened. They didn't tell me nothing."
Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, told an acquaintance the shooting was "wrong and it was cold-hearted", the reported. According to the newspaper, Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, held a sign that read: "Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son!!!"
