Prosecutors in Ferguson, Missouri,
have charged a man with assaulting officers during events marking the
first anniversary of the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael
Brown.
They named the suspect as Tyrone Harris, 18, who was critically wounded in a gun battle with police on Sunday.
The authorities have declared a state of emergency in the city.
Michael Brown's death triggered a wave of demonstrations over the use of excessive police force by officers.
The
18-year-old was shot in August 2014 by white police officer Darren
Wilson, who was later cleared of any wrongdoing by a grand jury and the
US Department of Justice. What happened in Ferguson in 2014?
Separately
on Monday, a number of people were shown on local news networks being
arrested outside the main courthouse in St Louis.
Rallies were
due to take place in parts of St Louis and other major US cities as part
of a day of civil disobedience called by activists.
'Bunch of lies'
Hundreds
of people stood silent on Sunday for four-and-a-half minutes at the
spot where Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, representing the number
of hours that his body lay in the street unattended.
But the day
of peaceful and sombre commemorations turned violent late at night when,
according to police, a gunfight erupted between two rival groups on
West Florissant Avenue.
Prosecutors filed 10 counts against Tyrone Harris (pictured lying injured on the ground)
Police say Mr Harris was armed and opened fired, but his father has described their account of events as "a bunch of lies".
Prosecutors filed 10 counts of charges against him, including assaulting an officer.
Police said he was among six people who fired at an unmarked SUV with plainclothes detectives inside, who then fired back.
The
gunmen "were criminals; they weren't protesters," he said, adding that
the officers were not wearing body cameras - a major concern cited by
protest groups. Four police officers have been placed on administrative
leave.
The man's father told the AP news agency that his son, a
close friend of Brown, was shot between eight and 12 times as he was
running away.
Photos from the scene showed a young black man lying bloodied on the ground. He was face down and handcuffed.
Media captionDemonstrators confronted police on the streets of Ferguson exactly a year after Michael Brown's death, as Aleem Maqbool reports
Announcing
a state of emergency on Monday, the authorities in St Louis county
placed police chief Jon Belmar in charge of Ferguson and the surrounding
areas.
US attorney Loretta Lynch denounced the incident on
Sunday, saying "not only does violence obscure any message of peaceful
protest, it places the community, as well as the officers who seek to
protect it, in harm's way".
It also drew criticism from protest
groups, including the Ferguson Action Council and Organization for Black
Struggle which described the police response as "excessive".
John
Gaskin III, a member of US rights group NAACP, told AP he did not
expect unrest to escalate in Ferguson in the same way it has over the
past year.
However, he warned, not many people would believe the
police officers' account of Sunday night's events as "there's still a
tremendous level of distrust between law enforcement and the community".
There have been a number of high-profile shootings of unarmed black men in US cities in recent months.
The
most recent case involved 19-year-old Christian Taylor who was shot
dead by a white police officer after he was spotted on surveillance
footage vandalising cars in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.
The
nationwide protest movement was further incensed when a justice
department investigation found widespread racial bias in the Ferguson
police force. US Dept of Justice report on Ferguson racism
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