St. Louis County Police released a surveillance video from the Ferguson protests on Sunday that appears to show a man drawing his pistol.
Police say the man in the video is Tyrone Harris, an 18-year-old who was shot multiple times and critically wounded by a white Ferguson police officer shortly before midnight. According to police, Harris fired on an unmarked police vehicle and was armed with a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol that was reportedly stolen last year. His family and friends have denied he was carrying a weapon.
St. Louis County authorities declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of the shooting, which marred an otherwise peaceful day of protests and vigils commemorating the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown‘s death. Shortly after 8pm, Ferguson police in riot gear were deployed on West Florissant Avenue, an area that saw countless protests following the shooting of Brown last fall.
At a Monday press conference, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said officers in an unmarked SUV were investigating a man on Sunday night—later identified as Harris—whom the officers believed was armed. At the same time, two groups involved in some kind of dispute exchanged gunfire, allegedly shooting between 40 and 50 rounds.
When the officers approached Harris in their SUV and flashed their patrol lights, he opened fire at their vehicle, Belmar said, striking the windshield and hood multiple times.
The surveillance video released Tuesday was recorded at roughly 11:30pm, outside the Solo Insurance Services along West Florissant. As shots are fired in the video, more than a dozen people scatter; a few duck behind a white picket up truck in front of the store.
A man in a white shirt, who police say is Harris, appears to draw a pistol from his waistband and run towards the parking lot with his arm extended. It’s difficult to tell from the 13-second video, however, whether the man actually fires a weapon.
St. Louis County Police Department
As of Tuesday night, Harris remained hospitalized and in critical condition. He has been charged with five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of assault on law enforcement, and one count of discharging a firearm at a motor vehicle.
Screenshot via St. Louis County Police Department | Remix by Dell Cameron
