Tensions have flared in the US state of Missouri after a black
teenager was fatally shot by police, sending a crowd of local
residents into a frenzy.
According toAl Jazeera,the shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old
high school graduate, sent hundreds of residents from the St Louis
suburb of Ferguson into a heated confrontation with police lasting
several hours on Saturday.
The crowd shouted obscenities and threats, including "kill the
police," but there were no reports of any injuries.
A spokesman with the St Louis County Police Department confirmed one
of its officers had opened fire, but did not give a reason behind the
shooting.
The police are to hold a news conference about the shooting at 10am on Sunday.
The teenager's grandmother, Desiree Harris, said she was expecting her
grandson to visit her that afternoon and discovered him dead after she
heard commotion outside the apartment complex in Ferguson.
Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch
newspaper the shooting was "wrong and it was cold-hearted," while
Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, held a sign that read "Ferguson police
just executed my unarmed son!!!"
At the height of the confrontation, police called for about 60 other
police units to respond to the area, where around two-thirds of the
residents are black.
By early Saturday night, dozens of police cars remained parked near
the scene as mourners created a makeshift memorial in the middle of
the street.
John Gaskin, a member of the St Louis County National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People civil rights group, urged the FBI to
get involved and "protect the integrity of the investigation."
He alluded to the 2012 racially-charged shooting of 17-year-old high
school student Trayvon Martin, by Florida neighbourhood watch
organiser George Zimmerman, who was subsequently acquitted of murder
charges.
Tension has been brewing since asthmatic New Yorker Eric Garner died
in custody after being placed in a banned chokehold.
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