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Video puts US shooting in spotlight
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VIDEO of US police officers shooting dead a 12-year-old black boy with a replica gun seconds after confronting him has stoked anger in the country as protests in Ferguson dwindled following two days of unrest.
Surveillance video released Wednesday showed that the boy, Tamir Rice, was shot last weekend only seconds after two officers arrived in a patrol car at a Cleveland, Ohio park.
Audio broadcast on US TV shows that a man who first observed the boy waving and pointing the gun and called police to report it specified at least twice he thought it was probably “a fake.”
But the dispatcher speaking to officers racing to the scene fails to mention that this witness thought the gun was not real.
The video emerged as tensions eased in Ferguson, after two days of often violent unrest sparked by Monday’s decision by a grand jury not to charge a white policeman who shot dead an unarmed black teenager.
Just a few dozen protesters and clergy braved rain and light snow to protest outside the police department in the St Louis suburb, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed on August 9.
The shooting sparked weeks of protest and a debate about race relations and military-style police tactics.
A Missouri grand jury decided Monday not to prosecute Officer Darren Wilson, who fired the fatal shots — a move that inspired coast-to-coast anger in the United States as well as a rally in London.
The simmering fury led a small group of protesters to attempt to storm St Louis city hall Wednesday. After they were rebuffed, extra police and a National Guard Humvee were drafted to protect the building.
In Ferguson late Wednesday, the group of mostly young people shouted, “This is what democracy looks like.”
Later a couple dozen protesters accompanied by clergy, volunteer medics and a gaggle of media marched from Ferguson police station to an intersection where the National Guard had a discreet presence.
They briefly blocked traffic but dispersed peacefully after police in riot gear turned up.
In Britain, thousands of sympathizers angered by Brown’s treatment marched in London chanting the same slogan: “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
US civil rights leaders have called for more protests tomorrow.
Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, told CBS News that the family hoped protests would remain peaceful.
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