Missouri declares state of emergency

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Monday, ahead of a jury verdict expected on whether or not a white police officer will be charged in the shooting death of a black 18-year-old in August.

Though the date when the verdict will announced has not been made public, Nixon said the US National Guard would be ordered in to assist police in the state should demonstrations turn violent, as they did after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, on August 9.

"All people in the St. Louis region deserve to feel safe in their communities and to make their voices heard without fear of violence or intimidation," Nixon said.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch said he expects the grand jury to reach a decision between now and the end of November.

The jury will decide whether evidence is strong enough to charge the 28-year-old police officer, Darren Wilson, and if so which charges he will face. If the jury issues an indictment, a separate jury will decide on his guilt.

'Hands up, don't shoot'

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are disputed. Police allege Brown was a suspect in a robbery in which cigars were taken from a convenient shop, but that he was stopped by Wilson for another reason.

According to the police, he then tried to grab the policeman's gun and was shot by Wilson. Some witnesses say Brown had his hands raised in surrender.

Results from a preliminary investigation in mid-August revealed that the unarmed teen was shot at least six times at midday on August 9, with two bullets fired at the head.

Demonstrations, racial tensions

The killing has stirred up simmering racial tensions and a debate over police brutality in a black-majority suburb, where white people dominate the police force. It sparked large-scale demonstrations, in which the slogan "hands up, don't shoot" was widely used.

Most of the protests were peaceful, but some turned into riots, with hundreds of arrests being made. Some of the protesters complained that police used undue force against them.

The violence prompted Governor Nixon to briefly call in the National Guard to bring the protests under control in mid-August and to declare a state of emergency.

Wilson's grand jury hearing began at the end of August.

Second shooting

Another black teenager, 18-year-old Vonderrit Myers Jr., was shot dead by a white off-duty St. Louis police officer in Missouri on October 8.

Myers was shot eight times, including six times from the back, according to an autopsy report commissioned by Myers' family.

Though the incident spurred a round of protests similar to those after the killing of Brown, it received considerably less media coverage.

sb/av (AFP, AP)