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Gunfire Erupts Following Ferguson Shooting Anniversary

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

All day on Sunday, Ferguson, Mo., marked the first anniversary of Michael Brown's death with peaceful protest and rallies. Then late last night, gunfire broke out. Police say two groups of people fired at one another. Officers spotted a suspect running down the street, and they followed. Police say he fired at the officers. They returned fire, and he was critically wounded. St. Louis Public Radio's Durrie Bouscaren has been up all night and was in Ferguson when the shooting happened. What did you see and hear?

DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: So I was there, and there was probably a protest of about 40, 50 people winding down, a lot of media, a lot of police in a line wearing riot gear and just a - dozens of shots rang out, probably a few blocks away. And so at that point, people were ducking behind cars. They were running away. And after that, people started to come out and see what had happened. We saw police cars going forward, some armored vehicles and then later, an ambulance taking the young man away.

MONTAGNE: Well, those earlier shots, do you have any sense or any knowledge of where those shots came from?

BOUSCAREN: The protest itself was at the intersection of Ferguson Avenue and West Florissant. And the shots seemed to come a little bit north of that just a couple blocks - so not too far away from the protest, kind of between the protest and the Canfield Green apartments.

MONTAGNE: Well, I guess what I'm saying is protesters or police - any knowledge of who - where the shots came from?

BOUSCAREN: Police tell us that it was two different groups of people. I mean, that's - they weren't necessarily protesting at that time.

MONTAGNE: And how are people reacting to this turn of events, the violence after peaceful protests?

BOUSCAREN: Right. I mean, it really depends on who you ask. There's kind of a protester huddle who said they - you know, the police killed another one of our own. But a woman that I ran with, who's a resident of Ferguson, said this just needs to stop. The violence needs to end.

MONTAGNE: And let's be really clear - people are saying the police killed one of our own - in fact, he's critically wounded, not dead.

BOUSCAREN: Right.

MONTAGNE: Thank you very much. That's reporter Durrie Bouscaren of St. Louis Public Radio, who has been out on the streets of Ferguson. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Durrie Bouscaren was a general assignment reporter with Iowa Public Radio from March 2013 through July 2014.