‘My people are tired of this’: protesters fill St Louis streets after police officer acquitted of murdering black man
Former city policeman Jason Stockley was found not guilty despite claims he planted firearm in victim’s car after fatal shooting
Hundreds of protesters poured into St Louis streets on Friday, and some scuffles erupted, after a Missouri judge acquitted a former white police officer who was charged with murder in the 2011 fatal shooting of a black man.
With the National Guard on standby in case of violence, authorities appealed to demonstrators to remain peaceful as they protested the outcome of a case reminiscent of circumstances that spawned racially charged unrest in the nearby suburb of Ferguson and gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014.
Police said several protesters threw rocks and water bottles, while officers were seen in video footage and by eyewitnesses dousing at least five people with pepper spray about a block from the courthouse.
As night fell, police reported making 13 arrests and said four officers had been assaulted. One group of demonstrators tried to enter Interstate 40 but was blocked by police officers in riot gear.
Former city policeman Jason Stockley, 36, was found not guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, in a verdict rendered by a judge five weeks after the end of a non-jury trial. Stockley said Smith fled in his car when the officer tried to arrest him on drug charges.