ST. LOUIS (AP) – The decision to clear a New York police officer for a fatal chokehold has fueled protests in the St. Louis area, just over a week after a grand jury there decided not to charge an officer in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The Post-Dispatch reports five people were arrested Wednesday evening in downtown St. Louis as protesters attempted to prevent federal workers from leaving a courthouse. Protester Elizabeth Vega says they were “standing in solidarity with Eric Garner,” the black man who died after the chokehold.
During another demonstration in the city’s Central West End neighborhood, a minivan plowed through protesters, striking a woman.
About 200 people marched through the business district in suburban Clayton to the courthouse where the grand jury met in Brown’s case.