Hundreds of protesters poured into St. Louis streets on Friday, and some scuffles erupted, after a Missouri judge acquitted a former white police officer who was charged with murder in the 2011 fatal shooting of a black man.
With the National Guard on standby in case of violence, authorities appealed to demonstrators to remain peaceful as they protested the outcome of a case reminiscent of circumstances that spawned racially charged unrest in the nearby suburb of Ferguson and gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014.
Police said several protesters threw rocks and water bottles, while officers were seen in video footage and by eyewitnesses dousing at least five people with pepper spray about a block from the courthouse.