Suspect in custody after shooting at Ferguson protest

A man was shot and wounded, and a suspect quickly taken into custody at a Tuesday night protest in Ferguson, Missouri, near the site where unarmed black teen Michael Brown was shot dead by police last summer, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The newspaper said it was unclear if the shooting was linked to the demonstration, where some 50 people gathered and intermittently blocked traffic near where white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown in August.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. Representatives for the Ferguson police department declined multiple times to provide details.

Brown’s shooting, and subsequent police killings of unarmed black men, has sparked months of sometimes destructive protests against police violence, which have flared anew most recently in Baltimore where authorities have clashed with thousands protesting a black man’s death in police custody.

A photograph of the victim in Tuesday’s shooting, taken by St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson who helped carry the man into a nearby restaurant, showed the wounded man wrapping his leg with a sweatshirt.

The newspaper said police recovered a gun from the scene.

St. Louis County Police spokesman Brian Schellman said his department responded to a request by Ferguson police “to provide extra manpower” in the city, but could provide no information on the shooting or protest.

Footage on social media showed a heavy police presence in the area late on Tuesday, with many officers clad in riot gear telling several dozen people still there to disperse.