Police stand outside the looted Bowen Beauty Supply at the site of last year's riots on the one year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 9, 2015.
FERGUSON, Mo., Aug 10 (Reuters) - Two people were wounded in gunfire at a rally in Ferguson, Missouri on Sunday marking the first anniversary of the death of Michael Brown near where the unarmed black teenager was shot dead by a white office.
The gunshots rang out as police tried to disperse demonstrators blocking traffic and smashing windows along a street that was a flashpoint of last year's unrest following the slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The origin of the gunfire and condition of the two people shot was not immediately known, police said. One of the victims, a black male who looked to be a teenager or young adult, appeared in a Reuters photo to have been badly wounded.
Anniversary commemorations for Michael Brown had begun with a quiet march through the St. Louis suburb following a moment of silence for the 18-year-old youth, whose slaying on August 9, 2014, ignited months of demonstrations and a national debate on race and justice.
The scene changed dramatically after dark with a crowd of dozens of protesters blocking traffic and smashing store windows along West Florissant Avenue, which bore the brunt of last summer's rioting, chanting "Shut it down."
A phalanx of helmeted police wearing body armor and carrying shields moved in. Protesters briefly fell away before regrouping to confront the line of officers, who ordered them to disperse.
A body could be seen on West Florissant Avenue and a young woman screamed that her brother had been shot. Multiple store windows had been smashed out and police stood atop vehicles surveying the scene, which unfolded around the corner from where Brown was shot a year earlier.
“The St. Louis County Police Department was involved in an officer-involved shooting after officers came under heavy gunfire,” county police spokesman Shawn McGuire said in a statement. He said at least 2 unmarked police cars had been hit by gunshots.
Brown’s death, and a grand jury decision to spare Darren Wilson, the officer who shot him, from criminal charges sparked a prolonged wave of demonstrations in Ferguson last year that boiled over into rioting and arson at times and spawned sympathy rallies across the country.
It also sparked greater scrutiny of racial bias within the U.S. criminal justice system, giving rise to the “Black Lives Matter” movement that gained momentum from a series of other high-profile slayings of unarmed minorities by white police in cities such as New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Cincinnati.
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