10 Cops Injured in St. Louis Protests

Police fired tear gas after mayor's window broken
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 16, 2017 8:26 AM CDT
10 Cops Injured in St. Louis Protests
Police guard on-ramps to Interstate 64 as protesters gather, Friday, Sept. 15, 2017, in St. Louis.   (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Police in St. Louis used tear gas to break up protests Friday night after around 1,000 demonstrators surrounded the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson, hurling red paint and breaking a front window. Police say at least nine St. Louis officers and a Highway Patrol trooper were injured in the protests, which followed the acquittal of white former police officer Jason Stockley in the 2011 shooting death of black motorist Anthony Lamar Smith, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Police say 32 people were arrested when a demonstration that had been largely peaceful turned violent after dark and "agitators began to destroy property and assault police officers."

Activists have promised more protests against the acquittal of Stockley, who, during a police chase, was caught on dashcam video saying "I'm going to kill this motherf*****, don't you know it," the AP reports. Less than a minute later, he shot Smith five times. Prosecutors accused him of planting a gun in the 24-year-old's car afterward. The St. Louis unrest comes three years after nearby Ferguson erupted over the police shooting of 18-year-old black man Michael Brown. "I'm sad, I'm hurt, I'm mad," Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church tells Reuters. "We haven't made any progress since Ferguson, that's clear. Cops can still kill us with impunity." (More St. Louis stories.)

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