Dozen Arrested In St. Louis Mike Brown Protest; Police Allegedly Pelted With Rocks

tag-reuters (3) — Demonstrators participate in a sit-in during a rally for Michael Brown outside the police department in Ferguson, Mo., Oct. 11, 2014. Reuters/Jim Young

UPDATE 4:45 p.m. EDT: Reuters reported 17 were arrested during the early Sunday morning sit-in at the QuikTrip gas station. They were charged with unlawful assembly.

Original post

St. Louis police arrested about a dozen demonstrators at a QuikTrip gas station early Sunday, alleging officers were pelted by rocks. The arrests were the first during a weekend of protests stemming from the shooting deaths of two black youths.

Protestors now throwing rocks at the police. Arrests have been made for continued illegal behavior.
- Chief Sam Dotson (@ChiefSLMPD) October 12, 2014

The Washington Post reported riot police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Hundreds of demonstrators descended on the St. Louis area this weekend to protest the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by white Police Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., and the Oct. 8 fatal shooting of black teen Vonderrit Myers Jr. by a white police officer in St. Louis. Both youths were 18. Brown was unarmed, while police have said Myers was armed.

Protestors attempting to storm Quicktrip at Vandeventer & Chouteau. All protestors engaging in illegal behavior will be subject to arrest.
- Chief Sam Dotson (@ChiefSLMPD) October 12, 2014

The Post said more than 100 demonstrators showed up at the St. Louis QuikTrip after marches and a sit-in in Ferguson. A Ferguson QuikTrip was burned out in the days following Brown’s shooting. Protesters then had used the site as a gathering point before the owners fenced off the property.

As they marched to the QuikTrip in the Shaw neighborhood where Myers was killed, demonstrators chanted, “No justice, no peace” and “The whole damn system is guilty as hell.” Organizers tried to keep the protest peaceful, using loudspeakers to admonish the crowd against causing any damage, the Post said.

The demonstrators engaged in almost five minutes of silence before locking arms and sitting down on the pathway leading to the facility’s entrance. Police with batons and cans of pepper spray pushed the protesters back toward the street. Demonstrators told the Post tear gas was unleashed after protesters began clearing the area as bars in the vicinity were closing down for the night.

An earlier demonstration Saturday turned into a dance party in the streets.

“It’s disrespectful,” Deray McKesson, one of the organizers, told the Post. “This is supposed to be about showing solidarity, not a celebration.”