FERGUSON,
Mo. — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Sunday that the Justice
Department would conduct its own autopsy of Michael Brown, the unarmed
African-American teenager who was fatally shot more than a week ago by a
white police officer.
A
Justice Department spokesman, Brian Fallon, said in a statement that
the autopsy, which would be in addition to a state autopsy, had been
ordered because of “the extraordinary circumstances involved in this
case and at the request of the Brown family.”
The
autopsy will be done by a federal medical examiner, Mr. Fallon said,
adding that “Justice Department officials still plan to take the
state-performed autopsy into account in the course of their
investigation.” The state autopsy of Mr. Brown was conducted early last
week.
After
more than a week of unrest, the governor of Missouri said Sunday that
an overnight curfew had been effective in helping to maintain peace in
this St. Louis suburb.
Despite the curfew, however, there were scattered clashes and a shooting by an unknown assailant.
Thousands
of people marched on Saturday night, Mr. Nixon said, and only seven of
them were arrested. Law enforcement did not fire a single shot, he
added. Asked in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation”
whether things were under control on Sunday morning, Mr. Nixon said, “We
feel much better.”
He did not specify how long the curfew would continue, but left open the possibility that it could last for several days.
Shortly
after the curfew went into effect at midnight on Saturday, a clash
between protesters and dozens of police officers in riot gear led to the
arrests of seven people, all accused of “failure to disperse,”
officials said. In addition, a man was shot by an unknown person and was
taken by companions to a hospital, where he was reported to be in
critical condition, officials said.
On Sunday morning, Mr. Nixon called that shooting “a private matter” and said that law enforcement had not been involved.
The
police fired smoke grenades and some tear gas early Sunday while
responding to the shooting, despite an earlier pledge by Capt. Ronald S.
Johnson, the State Highway Patrol commander who is overseeing security
in Ferguson, that such tactics would not be used to enforce the curfew.
Protesters angered over the police
shooting of Michael Brown, 18, squared off with law enforcement in the
streets of Ferguson, Mo., again, looting some stores.
Video Credit By Brent McDonald on
Publish Date August 16, 2014.
Image CreditWhitney Curtis for The New York Times
At a news conference
about 3 a.m. on Sunday, Captain Johnson explained that some tear gas
was used because the police had learned that armed men were inside a
barbecue restaurant. One man with a gun had moved to the middle of the
street, Captain Johnson said, but escaped. A police car was fired upon,
the captain added, but it was not immediately clear if it was hit.
The
curfew was announced at a news conference on Saturday afternoon, when
Governor Nixon also declared a state of emergency here, a week after the
death of Mr. Brown.
“This
is not to silence the people of Ferguson, but to address those who are
drowning out the voice of the people with their actions,” Mr. Nixon, a
Democrat, told reporters and residents at a church in Ferguson. “We will
not allow a handful of looters to endanger the rest of this community.
If we’re going to achieve justice, we must first have and maintain
peace.”
Mr. Nixon added: “This is a test. The eyes of the world are watching.”
On
Sunday, Mr. Nixon said that his office did not know that the Ferguson
police had planned to release a video on Friday that appeared to show
that Mr. Brown was a suspect in a robbery at a convenience store moments
before he was shot on Aug. 9.
“We
were unaware they were going to release it, and we certainly were not
happy with that being released, especially in the way that it was,” Mr.
Nixon said.
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