RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Mo. �� Police arrested at least 22 people in a protest at a St. Louis suburban shopping mall Saturday afternoon, called to further protest the acquittal last week of a white police officer in the shooting death of a black man.
Police made the arrests and cleared the St. Louis Galleria in Richmond Heights after some in the group refused orders to disperse.
At one point, police prevented some protesters from getting on an escalator to join others already on the second floor. Some trash cans were overturned.
St. Louis County police said an officer was taken to a hospital with a back injury and that two protesters had minor injuries. County police said on Twitter that the charges are expected to include rioting, trespassing, disorderly conduct and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Police said about 150 other people followed dispersal warnings and "peacefully left."
Richmond Heights police said the Galleria's management had initially allowed the peaceful protest to proceed. But police said management later asked that it be stopped when protesters refused to refrain from blocking shoppers' access to escalators.
"This was not tolerated by mall management, and they wanted all protesters removed from the mall," police said.
Police said the blocking was done "in an attempt to take over the second floor of the mall."
Richmond Heights police said they gave three orders to disperse, after which the arrests began. County police were called in to assist.
Jason Stockley, a St. Louis police officer who since has left the force, was charged in the 2011 death of Lamar Anthony Smith.
Stockley argued that he shot Smith in self-defense after a suspected drug deal and a high-speed pursuit and crash.
Prosecutors charged Stockley with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. They alleged that he carried out the premeditated murder of Smith by shooting him five times at close range and then planting a revolver in Smith's car after police pulled Smith's body from the vehicle.
Stockley was acquitted in a bench trial.
(Christian Gooden and Denise Hollinshed contributed to this report.)
