Angry protesters took to the streets late Tuesday after a memorial to Michael Brown was destroyed in a fire, renewing tensions in the St. Louis suburb wracked by protests after the unarmed black teen was shot by police in August.
Many who gathered at the site Tuesday blamed police for the blaze. "It's the same as if somebody came and desecrated a grave," Anthony Levine of Florissant, another St. Louis suburb, told The Associated Press as he studied the charred scene and shook his head. NBC station KSDK reported that a beauty salon was later broken into on West Florissant Avenue, which had been the scene of earlier protests and unrest in the wake of Brown’s death. A crowd also gathered in the street, with some shouting slogans at police who had arrived at the scene of the burglary. A KSDK reporter on the scene said he heard shots fired. It was not immediately clear if any arrests were made.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
