FERGUSON, Mo.—Police officers shot a man after he allegedly opened fire on them during protests in this St. Louis suburb late Sunday, leaving the man in a "critical, unstable condition," St. Louis County Police said Monday.
Police said two people near the protest allegedly exchanged gunfire with each other, to which detectives in an unmarked vehicle responded. A man allegedly shot at the police, hitting two vehicles before running away. While running, the man allegedly turned, fired at the detectives and was shot by one of them.
Police said they later recovered a stolen 9mm handgun the man allegedly used to shoot at them. As of Monday morning, the suspected shooter, who hasn't been identified by police, was in "critical, unstable condition" at a local hospital.
The shooting happened after mostly peaceful protests to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old shot and killed by a white Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference early Monday that the shooters weren't part of the protests.
"They were criminals, they weren't protesters," he said, adding that there was a "small group of people out there that are intent on making sure we don't have peace that prevails."
While the four officers involved weren't injured they have been placed on administrative leave until they are fit for duty, Mr. Belmar said at the news conference. The officers weren't wearing body cams. St. Louis County Police have had a leading role in Ferguson, providing manpower to that town's small police force throughout the past year of protest. Ferguson officers weren't part of the shooting, according to police reports.
The police shooting happened shortly after two groups exchanged gunfire, sending protesters running for cover, Mr. Belmar said. He added that there had been a "remarkable amount of gunfire."
Hours later, a second shooting took place just blocks away in the Canfield Apartments, where a new memorial to Michael Brown is embedded in the sidewalk: a dove. Two teens were shot there in what police described as a drive-by shooting.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch denounced the violence.
"I strongly condemn the violence against the community, including police officers, in Ferguson," Ms. Lynch said Monday in a speech in Pittsburgh to a gathering of the Fraternal Order of Police. "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."
Dellena Jones watched from the sidewalk Monday morning as friends swept up the shattered front window of her hair salon, smashed the night before when a day of peaceful protests ended in gunfire.
"I'm just thankful we weren't here," she said of herself and her two daughters, adding that she would survey the damage later in the day. "Last year, we were here."
During the long night, a few businesses on West Florissant Avenue were hit by vandals, including Ms. Jones' salon.
Ms. Jones, who has owned the salon for three years, was looted last year during the sometimes-violent protests in the aftermath of the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man fatally shot by a white Ferguson police officer.
"It's just so frustrating," she said, looking at her darkened shop and the glass on the ground.
Ms. Jones said she was at home Sunday night, helping her two daughters prepare for school, when officers in riot gear formed skirmish lines in response to protesters. Then, just after 11 p.m., protesters scattered after multiple gunshots were fired near the crowd, according to police reports.
In multiple interviews over the past six months, Ms. Jones has talked about her struggles to keep her business afloat and to try and build up the neighborhood that was the focal point of protests all last summer and which was hit hard by vandals, looters and arsonists last year after a grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson for shooting Mr. Brown.
Hundreds of people had gathered Sunday to mark the anniversary of the shooting. His shooting and subsequent riots led to a summer of protests in the St. Louis suburb and launched a national discussion on race and policing in the U.S.
In the minutes after the shooting, police scrambled to the area and sent at least one Bearcat armored vehicle near the scene of where shots were fired, according to radio traffic on a local police scanner.
Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman who was at the protests Sunday night in Ferguson, said a faction of protesters had squared off with police just before the trouble began. Soon after the crowd dispersed, he said, sporadic looting of businesses broke out. Mr. French said he noticed a small group of people lingering around West Florissant Avenue throughout the night who seemed to have little interest in joining the main protesters.
Mr. French said he had positioned himself in front of a window that was broken by looters when he heard gunshots.
"The gunshots seemed to be coming from different directions. I ducked behind a parked Escalade," he said. "The gunshots kept going and going."
Mr. French, an active presence at the Ferguson protests who has worked with others to try to keep the peace between marchers and police, was exasperated as he described the night's events, emphasizing that Sunday's problems were caused by a small group who took advantage of the protests and tensions around them.
"It was a similar dynamic to what we saw on some of the worst nights last year," he said. "There is an active protest group, and there are some people who are just waiting for stuff to happen, just sitting back and waiting for an opportunity to steal stuff and cause trouble."
Phil Gassoway, a protester and activist in Ferguson, said the marches had been peaceful until late Sunday night when gunfire was heard.
"It was crazy. There was a lot of commotion. People were ducking," he said.
Mr. Gassoway said a fellow protester and activist, Tony Rice, was briefly detained by police after taking video footage of a man who was wounded by gunfire and lay on the ground with officers nearby.
Following the burst of gunfire, the mood in Ferguson changed from a day of peaceful protest to renewed frustration, Mr. Gassoway said.
Devlin Barrett contributed to this article.
Write to Ben Kesling at benjamin.kesling@wsj.com and Dan Frosch at dan.frosch@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 10, 2015 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)