Police in St Louis, Missouri, have released dramatic surveillance footage they say shows a teenager pulling a firearm from his waistband shortly before he is alleged to have opened fire on officers in Ferguson.
The CCTV footage was filmed on Sunday evening at an insurance agency on West Florissant Avenue during protests marking the one-year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. The evening descended into chaos after 18 year-old Tyrone Harris was shot by police when he allegedly opened fire on them.
The St Louis County Police Department said the footage, lasting 13 seconds, showed Harris pulling a gun after shots were fired. The video depicts a young man in a white T-shirt pulling a weapon after the crowd he is in runs for cover. It does not show him firing.
According to an account provided by police, two rival groups exchanged gunfire for about 50 seconds on West Florissant. Plainclothed detectives in an unmarked police vehicle then trailed Harris who is alleged to have shot at their vehicle before the detectives got out. Harris is then said to have fled and fired again at police, before detectives returned fire. A 9mm semi-automatic handgun was recovered at the scene, according to police, who said the weapon had been reported stolen.
The teenager was transferred to the Barnes Jewish hospital in St Louis and was described on Monday as in a critical condition. Asked for a further update on Tuesday, a spokesman for the hospital referred inquiries to St Louis county police, where Officer Shawn McGuire said Harris remained critical.
McGuire added that the police were not aware of any footage showing Harris firing the weapon or of the officer involved. None of the detectives involved in the incident was wearing a body camera.
Harris has been charged with four counts of first-degree assault on law enforcement officials, five counts of armed criminal action and one count of shooting a firearm at a vehicle. The teenager is being held on a $250,000 cash-only bond.
Tensions remained high in Ferguson on Monday night as protesters and police clashed sporadically throughout the evening on West Florissant Avenue. As the protests began to wrap up a group of heavily armed men from the “Oath Keepers” – an armed militia who claim to protect the values of the US constitution – arrived and said they had agreed to provide security for journalists working for the conspiracy-minded news site Info Wars.
In an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday Oath Keepers Missouri chapter leader John Karriman said the group planned to be out on the streets again on Tuesday night.
