Almost.
After hours of peaceful protesting along W. Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, just after a prayer and a request to the men in the crowd to make sure all the women get to their cars safely – someone threw a water bottle at a line of police officers.
Then, as has been the case nightly, chaos ensured.
Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, in a morning briefing, confirmed that at about midnight “agitators and criminals” started the fracas – basically after everyone was starting to go home.
“Bottles were thrown at police…. That forced police to deploy their helmet shields for protection and then break into the crowd in search of the perpetrators, who hit behind the media for safety,” Johnson said. “All night and early this morning, no smoke bombs and no tear gas was used. We did deploy very limited pepper spray and once again, no police officer fired a single bullet.”
Minutes before the skirmish Pastor Herbert Thompson Jr. of Ramoth City of Refuge Church of God in Christ, using a bullhorn, gathered the crowd in prayer in the parking lot of Sam’s Meat Market & More, which had been hit earlier this week by looters.
Most people assumed that the night was over, but soon the first bottle came. Then more bottles, filled with urine. Police officers targeted what they had been calling “bad actors” and chased them through the crowds.
“The clergy wanted to have a prayer to end tonight,” Johnson said. “The criminals didn’t even have a respect of prayer. This started during the prayer.”
Police officers then formed a line along the end of the media area and slowly walked from Canfield toward the McDonald’s, leaving behind the reports while pushing the protesters down West Florissant.
Johnson said 47 people were arrested Tuesday night – including a man from Austin, Texas who has been arrested three times.
Three loaded guns were also confiscated. In one particular instance, Johnson said a car tried to approach the police command center, with threats to kill a police officer.
But despite those problems, Johnson said Tuesday night marked a “turning point” for the city 10 days after the fatal shooting of Brown.
“Tonight, we saw a different dynamic,” Johnson said.
Until the midnight skirmishes, most of the night was calm and the crowd was noticeably smaller than previous nights.
With most of the activity situated around Canfield Drive – where Brown was shot and killed by a white local police officer – protesters freely mingled with police officers, who were stationed within the crowd rather than on the edges.
The only directions were to stay out of the street and keep moving. A growing crowd walked up and down the street all night chanting. A woman gave out bottles. And had milk on the ready: “In case they shoot us with gas bombs,” said Jamelia White.
Unlike previous nights, no Molotov cocktails were thrown. No shots were fired by protesters either.
Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to arrive in Ferguson today to meet with local leaders, prosecutors from the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI investigators.
In an op-ed piece he published in Wednesday’s “St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” Holder said the federal investigation into Brown’s death with be thorough.
“This is my pledge to the people of Ferguson: Our investigation into this matter will be full, it will be fair, and it will be independent,” Holder wrote.
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