One person was critically injured and seven were arrested as violence broke out after a midnight curfew was imposed on the St. Louis suburb rocked by the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teen. Clashes erupted shortly after the curfew went into effect, with tear gas and the sound of gunshots hitting the streets of Ferguson, Missouri as dozens of protesters stayed out in the driving rain.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said at an early morning press conference that one person was shot near the protests and is in critical condition, adding that a police car was fired upon. Johnson said the canisters of smoke and tear gas were used to reach the victim of the shooting, “and not in relation to the curfew.” It was not clear why or how the person was shot, and the shooter was still at large, police said.
Johnson said police used “proper response tonight to maintain officer safety and public safety,” even though he had vowed during an earlier press conference not to use tear gas and armored trucks, but rather communication to disperse crowds at midnight. The strict curfew was enacted by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Saturday in an attempt to ease the tensions in Ferguson, which erupted over the death of Michael Brown and sparked protests and looting.
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