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Ferguson unrest: Two shot near where Michael Brown died, after teenager left fighting for life following police gunfight

Tyrone Harris was shot hours before

Kashmira Gander
Tuesday 11 August 2015 10:18 BST
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St. Louis County police officers respond in an MRAD vehicle after shots were fired during a protest march on August 9, 2015 on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri
St. Louis County police officers respond in an MRAD vehicle after shots were fired during a protest march on August 9, 2015 on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri (Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images)

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Two teenagers have been shot near the spot where Michael Brown died last year, hours after a teenager was left fighting for his life following a gunfight with police.

A 17-year-old and a 19-year-old were shot at the Canfield Apartment complex at around 2am, where white police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on 9 August 2014.

The younger teenager was hit in the chest and shoulder area, and the 19-year-old suffered a wound to his chest, St Louis County police officer Shawn McGuire said in a statement.

The victims told police officers they were walking by the memorial for Brown when a vehicle drove past and an African American male in a red hoodie started shooting at them.

The pair were rushed to hospital and are being treated for non-life threatening injures.

Around two hours before, Tyrone Harris, 18, was shot after he became engaged in a gunfight with St Louis County police, the department chief Jon Belmar told a press conference.

The teenager has since received emergency surgery at a local hospital.

Belmar told reporters that two small groups were engaged in a shooting outside the protest at West Florissant square.

Without formally naming Harris as the victim, he said that a man walked from the gunfight towards police, and fired on four plain-clothed officers sitting in an unmarked car.

The incident culminated in the four police officers – who were not wearing body cameras – shooting the man.

Harris was then rushed to hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.

“They were criminals. They weren't protesters. There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that we don't have peace that prevail," Belmar told reporters.

But Harris' father told the St Louis Post-Dispatch: “We think there's a lot more to this than what's being said.”

”We can't sustain this as a community,“ he said.

Additional reporting by AP

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