Teen charged after shooting at Ferguson rally

Prosecutors in Ferguson, Missouri, have charged an 18-year-old man with assaulting police officers on the anniversary of the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

Tyrone Harris Jr opened fire on officers and was critically wounded when they shot back, St Louis County’s police chief said.

But his father called the police version of events “a bunch of lies”.

He said his son was unarmed and had been drawn into a dispute involving two groups of young people.

St Louis County prosecutors announced 10 charges against Harris — five counts of armed criminal action, four counts of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and a firearms charge.

Protest groups have condemned the police response to protesters who gathered along West Florissant Avenue on Sunday.

The anniversary of Brown’s killing, which cast greater scrutiny on how police interact with black communities, has sparked days of renewed protests, though until Sunday they had been peaceful and without any arrests.

St Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference that officers had been tracking the suspect, who they believed was armed, during a protest marking the death of Brown.

At the height of what was already a rowdy protest in which rocks and bottles were thrown at officers, gunshots rang out from the area near a strip of shops, including some that had been looted.

At one point, the suspect crossed the street and apparently spotted the plain clothes officers arriving in an unmarked van with distinctive red and blue police lights, police said. Harris is said to have shot into the windscreen.

The officers fired back at him and then pursued him on foot when he ran.

The suspect fired on officers again after he became trapped in a fenced-in area, the police chief said, and all four officers fired back. He was struck and fell.

Harris was taken to a hospital, where he is in a “critical, unstable” condition.

Tyrone Harris Sr told AP his son was a close friend of Michael Brown and was in Ferguson on Sunday night to pay respects.

He said his son got caught up in a dispute among two groups of young people and was “running for his life” after gunfire broke out. He said his son had no weapons