The most violent confrontation between police and protestors came when protestors went to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house the night after the verdict was handed down in the Jason Stockley case, absolving the former St. Louis Police officer of first-degree murder in the killing of a black man, Anthony Lamar Smith, in December 2011.
But by the time they got to the mayor’s house in the Central West End, dozens of protestors had been pepper-sprayed, some had been trampled by police in riot gear, and by the end of the night nearly dozen police officers would be wounded by bricks and bottles hurled from the protest crowd.
Children were present in the more peaceful, early hours of protest downtown. Around 1 p.m., people were occupying the intersection of Tucker and Market, walking in a circle. A handful of protestors were in the center of the circle handing out water, surrounded by a crowd of about 50 people.
Shouting was heard from Clark and Tucker, where a row of police with riot shields and full black body armor could be seen. As protestors walked toward the noise, other protestors with red eyes and milk stains on their face walked away from Clark and Tucker. A middle-aged man stood in the middle of Tucker and yelled, “Be careful. They’re using tactics. Get ready to be pepper-sprayed.”
Protestors with balaclavas or kerchiefs wrapped around their faces yelled at the officers.
The police had been guarding the ramp to I-64/40, accessed by Clark Street just west of Tucker, all morning since soon after the verdict was handed down about 9 a.m.
The police line lasted less than an hour before all the officers moved back into the police station directly behind them.
The crowd, which was still about 50 people, returned to Tucker and Market. A few people spoke to the crowd. A band played drums. The scene was calm like this for a few hours. Multiple voices could be heard saying, “We’re just waiting for everyone to get off work.”
Eventually, the crowd started to move up Tucker. Once movement started, much of the crowd left. Fewer, if any, children or older or disabled protesters remained. The crowd was momentarily very small.
The crowd’s movement corresponded to the way police were blocking them and at times seemed improvised. At one point, the crowd stopped near an 1-70 underpass and waited for police cars to park to make their decision.
While they walked, the crowd maintained a chant that shifted among “Hands up, don’t shoot,” “Black lives matter,” “This is what democracy looks like” and “The people united can never be defeated.” (Later they corrected themselves to “divided.”)
Their route had landed them on Clark and Turner, a spot where the police didn’t want them. A police line formed, and 5 or 6 people were pepper-sprayed for not moving back when the police line approached. The police line stayed for about an hour then filed back into the station.
The crowd dispersed soon after.
The second round of protestors was clearly larger. They were able to shut down four-lane roads quickly. They overran Forest Park Parkway in seconds. At Forest Park and Kingshighway, they were joined by a second group of protestors. They walked through half of Kingshighway easily, but they were so large that they had to slow down to make sure the whole mass was together.
The police officers made few interactions at that point. A police vehicle with its lights on was always at the head of the march and usually drove in reverse. The protestors had their own route though.
The police presence appeared to double once the group made their way up Kingshighway to the I-64 overpass. Police blocked them at every turn, so the crowd rushed through a grove and into a neighborhood.
A man dressed like a pastor told the front of the mass that they better make sure the neighborhood has an exit before they enter. The protestors turned around and exited through the same route.
However, while the tail end of the crowd was standing in the grove, someone started to light a United States flag on fire. Other protestors assisted the burning by squeezing a flammable liquid on it.
March to the mayor’s house
By the time the crowd marched to the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson, it stretched for a block and half. The crowd stopped and demanded that the mayor come out. A protestor with a bullhorn asked for a white female volunteer to knock on her door and ask the mayor for a cup of sugar. One woman did volunteer, and she went up and knocked on the door.
The mayor’s house has a glass front door, with no screen or blinds. Anyone who stands on the front steps can see into her house. The female volunteer was talking in the direction of the glass door and appeared to be interacting with someone in the house.
Meanwhile, people in the crowd started throwing objects that left red paint stains on the front of the mayor’s house. One of these objects hit a window and everyone on the mayor’s front steps moved away from the house. Objects continued to be thrown, and a second sound of glass being broken could be heard.
The crowd started to retreat slightly. An intersection-sized crowd stayed in front of the mayor’s house. Five or six city police officers appeared, and few people saw them coming. The police rushed to move media standing on the mayor’s front lawn, then stood guard on the property. Protestors yelled in their face as they did at the police lines.
What appeared to be civilian vehicles continued to come on the intersecting street but not into the occupied street. One of these cars suddenly pulled into the occupied street, and two policemen came out and ordered everybody back. Within minutes, these officers took out pepper spray and sprayed at everyone in front of them. The crowd ran back to a safe distance then continued to yell at them.
A line of more than 20 police in riot gear came up the occupied street and through the mass of protestors. They formed a line in front of the mayor’s house then started to march toward the crowd, eventually dispersing them with pepper spray.
In a final, quiet act of defiance, a man on a bicycle, wearing sunglasses with a kerchief around his nose and mouth, threw his bike down in front of the approaching police line. The officers told him to pick it up or he would be pepper-sprayed and arrested. He turned around to pick it up slowly, and the police pepper-sprayed him. He didn’t speed up or wipe any of it off. He looked completely unbothered.
The officers told him to hurry up and move out of their way. He remained in their way and was thrown down to the ground and arrested.
St. Louis police later reported 32 arrests.
They reported 11 police officers injured by bricks and bottles – 9 St. Louis Police officers, one St. Louis County Police officer and one Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper. None of the injuries were life-threatening.
Police reported that officers deployed pepper balls as “a less-lethal option after agitators continued to assault officers with objects and destroyed property.”
In addition to property damage at Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home, police reported windows broken at Culpeppers restaurant and a St. Louis Public Library branch.
