Race protests turn violent in America
Protests have turned violent in an American inner-city suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death.
Some people hurled Molotov cocktails at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas.
The shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown, 18, has prompted four nights of looting and unrest in the boy's hometown of Ferguson City in the state of Missouri.
Protesters have gathered every night since the 18-year-old was shot to death in the mostly black suburb of St. Louis, during what authorities said was a struggle over a gun in a police car.
Some witnesses say he was outside the car with his hands up.
The situation has become increasingly tense with police ordering people to go home before using smoke bombs and later tear gas after Molotov cocktails were thrown at them.
Most of the crowd then dispersed. Journalists who witnessed the events included an Associated Press photographer and a Reuters journalist.
Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street.
They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer's weapon.
At least one shot was fired inside the car. The struggle then spilled onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times.
In their initial news conference about the shooting, police didn't specify whether Brown was the person who scuffled with the officer in the car and have refused to clarify their account.
Dorian Johnson, who says he was with Brown when the shooting happened, has told a much different story.
He has told media outlets that the officer ordered them out of the street, then tried to open his door so close to the men that it "ricocheted" back, apparently upsetting the officer. Johnson says the officer grabbed his friend's neck, then tried to pull him into the car before brandishing his weapon and firing.
He says Brown started to run and the officer pursued him, firing multiple times.
Johnson and another witness both say Brown was on the street with his hands raised when the officer fired at him repeatedly.
Some protesters raised their arms above their heads as they faced the police. Others held signs asking for answers about Brown's death.
The most popular chant has been, "Hands up! Don't shoot!"
Brown's body remained on the street for hours — a span Jackson deemed "uncomfortable" but justified, given that "you only get one chance at that crime scene" to process it correctly.
Authorities were also concerned about gunfire they could hear in a nearby building.
In the shooting's aftermath, the notorious hacking collective Anonymous has taken credit for burrowing into the city website and shutting it down for much of the day on Monday, local time.
The group also released what it said were audio experts from St. Louis County dispatch on the day Brown was killed.
Police declined to comment on the recordings.
