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hello, everyone. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm erol barnett. thanks for staying with us as we continue with our coverage of the still developing situation in ferguson, missouri. we'll bring you all the latest information coming up. >> they determined no probable cause exists to file charges against officer wilson. >> no charges, not a single one. a grand jury clears a white police officer, darren wilson in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager michael brown. the streets of ferguson erupt in looting and gunfire. also ahead -- >> to those in ferguson, there are ways of channeling your concerns constructively, and there are ways of channeling

your concerns destructively. >> also there's never an excuse for violence. the u.s. present urges ferguson protesters to accept the judicial process and vent their anger peacefully at the precise moment things unraveled. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> fears of violence are coming true this morning in ferguson, missouri, after a grand jury cleared police officer darren wilson in the august 9th shooting death of the unarmed michael brown. >> since then, there have been days of protests. most of them peaceful. the reaction from protesters after it was announced darren wilson would not be identified was swift. it did turn violent. several buildings had been set on fire. some we understand are still smoldering at this late hour. a number of local businesses have been looted as well,

including this store. incidentally it's where michael brown allegedly stole cigars just moments before his death. all of this anger we're seeing boil over and all of this violence came after the prosecutor announced the grand jury's decision. >> they are the only people, the only people who have heard and examined every witness and every piece of evidence. they discussed and debated the evidence among themselves before arriving at their collective decision. after their exhaustive review of the evidence, the grand jury deliberated over two days making their final decision. they determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against officer wilson and return a no true bill on each of the five indictments. the physical and scientific evidence examined by the grand jury, combined with the witness statements, supported and substantiated by that physical evidence tells the accurate and tragic story of what happened.

>> now for the parents of michael brown, they've had an incredibly difficult past few months, and they watched that announcement and then issued this statement saying, quote, we are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequences of his actions. we respectfully ask that you please keep your protests peaceful, answering violence with violence is not the appropriate reaction. >> we want to get back to ed lavandera in dillwood, missouri, right next door to ferguson. so, ed, as we bring you in, we want to show some aerial shots that i understand have just come in? no, we can't go to those just yet. here we go. i think this is the aerial shot. we're seeing some cars. about three cars ablaze and there's also a building there in ferguson. so now, ed, you had trouble.

you were actually caught in a building at one stage. you weren't able to get out. talk to us about the lead-up to that. once you got out on the street what you witnessed exactly. >> we started off the evening along west florissant which is where the area that had seen the brunt of the protests back in august. and as everything erupted in front of the police station in ferguson, which is about a mile away, there was no law enforcement presence. we were just down the road here about a half mile down that way. and it became a quickly chaotic scene as people went down the street setting fires to buildings. this is kind of what you're seeing here behind me at this point. as many of these fires, the firefighters just haven't been able to get to or even been able to come out and put them out. this is another auto parts store that was set ablaze. that's been burning for quite

some time. you hear explosions coming out of that from time to time. so it was an incredibly chaotic scene throughout the night and still remains to be a very tense night as we have law enforcement and teams in riot gear just up the street trying to figure out how to protect the various areas the best they can. the vast majority of the chaos has been brought to a quiet here so far. this is what you are seeing, trying to keep some semblance of order and maintain at least the peacefulness that is on the street right now. but there are still pockets of anger that you see erupting throughout the streets here. it still is a very chaotic situation in many places. you are seeing fires start up just around the corner.

more convenience stores being looted. cars set ablaze. so it's almost like it just keeps moving from location to location. >> of course, ed, as you're speaking to us, we're seeing on the right of the screen those three cars ablaze. and it is heartbreaking. and heartbreaking for those protesters who have been out an the streets trying to get their message across to the world. for 100 days or so they've been out there. there's been no violence and now this small group of people, the small group of agitators have come in and caused all of this destruction, overshadowed and muddied their message for the world. no doubt people there, residents there are angry and upset by that because this is their community. they have to move forward and live here. give us an idea, the number of people. the number of agstators there when this violence was at its peak in the last few hours.

>> well, on this stretch of road, i think it's fair to say it was much more than just a small group of people. it was an entire block that was very chaotic situation. and there were dozens, if not hundreds of people involved in the situation. there was several dozen people setting fires to the buildings. and this is an area that's probably about a mile stretch of road here along the street called west florissant. this was the street that saw the brunt of the protests back in -- this is the s.w.a.t. team trying to disperse this crowd here at this point. this is usually when these situations become a little tense as the standoff continues. these are s.w.a.t. teams moving in to get the crowd away from watching the scene here at this building, this business that is burning down here at this point. so we'll see if this kind of --

this situation disperses quietly. the s.w.a.t. officers are telling people they need to go home at this point. a lot of times this is what triggers the situation and becomes a tense standoff, if not all-out altercation. but for the most part, it seems at this pount most everybody is kind of agreeing to move along the way at this point. i don't see any situation. just one second. i don't want to turn my back on it. >> you keep watching that. and we will, too. if we can keep the camera trained on that. i did want to talk to, when you said, this is not small groups of agitators and that's what people have been talking about throughout -- >> they can't keep killing black folks and getting away with it. what you expect. >> sorry about that. repeat that, i'll -- >> no, i was interested in the point. there are still people still

angry on the streets. we saw sara sidner and stephanie elam, both of them have had objects thrown at them. i want to go to stephanie elam who is standing by. can you hear us? >> i can. i can hear you. >> as i was saying it was shocking. i saw the pictures earlier of you having objects, bottles thrown at you. there were no police around at that point. talk about what exactly was happening there and what the scene is now where you are. >> it was an interesting time that we showed up an west florissant avenue. it was one of those moments where things were changing. when we got there, we saw law enforcement go back to their vehicles and just leave the scene. there was mayhem on the street. we were watching things happen. i stood there and watched as one man kicked in a wireless store and about 20, 30 people went into the store behind him. at that same point, two young

women came up and said why are you doing this? why would you do this where we live and confronted some of those young men. same time across the street you saw another store being broken into and looted. then one more. and then fire started. and one beauty supply shop that was next to the mcdonald's you may keep seeing in some of our video. right around that point is when we were going live and there was just a couple young people for sport just throwing things at us. throwing -- a lot of it was just mcdonald's cartons. throwing them at us while we were live on the air. nothing like we saw sara sidner getting hit with a rock. people have been out here for months protesting. these are people that thought it would be fun to come out here and act up. quite a different tone to watch that. once there was gunfire, that's when the street did clear out a lot. when the police showed back up

in their riot gear, they pushed everyone out of the street. they pushed on down the street toward canfield, the street where mike brown died. >> stephanie, erol here. just looking at some of the aerials of fires still burning. you're speaking to the high level of anger that is evident there in ferguson and has been for some time that really appears to have boiled over after it was announced darren wilson would not be indicted. what might confuse viewers is that michael brown's parents were telling people to be peaceful, to make this a national message and keep that positive momentum. so many of those business owners had been interviewed by you and other correspondents. everybody saying we can really come together. what, if anything, could have triggered this violent response? we didn't see buildings getting burned three months ago or cars being set on fire.

if anything, what could you point that anger towards the community to? >> i spoke to one young man out here this evening. it's the feeling among many of these people that black lives don't matter. that here we go through the process, this is what they are telling me. we go through the process, the legal process and not one count. not one reason that this grand jury find to indict him. it was said to me numerous times while i was standing out on the street. it is the anger over feeling like law enforcement will always win when it comes to the value of black lives. and that has been the issue that's been simmering underneath the surface in ferguson. it's something that's uncomfortable. people don't like to talk about how black and white or all the different races commingle or not in a town or whether law enforcement may be prejudice in that town. a lot of people feel it is, that

law enforcement looks at them differently. and that's part of the anger that is here. for people who have never seen it from that perspentive it may be hard to hear, hard to understand. that's where the anger is coming from. what's disappointing is you have these mom and pop shops. these businesses burnt and looted and destroyed tonight because of that. that's incongruent and not in line with what people were asking of these protesters to do tonight. and it actually really doesn't help their cause in any sort of way. it detracts from what the parents of mike brown and the people who were supporting this movement were trying to do. >> unfortunately it will validate the opinions of those who do believe that the police are valid and using excessive force, if you want to call it that, because these neighborhoods are so violent. and a horrible and ironic way, this violence is helping to rejustify stereotypes that exist

in many american cities when it comes to minorities. >> which is the sad part about it. you're talking about a small subset of people. we just drove through part of ferguson to get here. the vast majority of ferguson is calm and quiet tonight. the vast majority is that way. this is not how all the people of ferguson or all the black people of ferguson are acting. a lot of protesters out here are not all black. every night i come out here there's a diverse group of people here. and it gets panted with this broad brush. it does nothing to help the cause that the people behind this movement have been pushing. >> stephanie elam reporting from the streets of ferguson. we'll be coming back to you, steph, in the minutes ahead. we have to take a very short break. more of our breaking news coverage from ferguson after this break. >> please do stay with us.

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all right. we are taking live pictures now. this is st. louis. riot police on the ground moving forward in formation there. that's really about all we can say on this because that's all we know with this aerial shot. they feel there's a particular reason they have to be that

particular part of town. they have presumably followed protesters there. things have calmed down sign significantly compared to a few hours ago. there's been looting. aerial shots of car dealership with cars ablaze. family businesses burned to the ground. it's a heartbreaking scene across ferguson. and here we're looking in st. louis. >> we'll continue to watch this. the police have a number of individuals on the ground at one of the complaints from people today because all this is happening in response to the grand jury coming back and deciding not to indict darren wilson with anything. one of the complaints we've heard from our analysts is that was figured out a good 12 hours ago and they waited. the prosecutor waited until late in the evening past, i think, 8:00 p.m. to really face the cameras and detail what the grand jury saw, what witness

testimony was, what evidence was presented before they reached their conclusion to not indict darren wilson on any of the counts in front of them. it sparked anger and violence. people felt they already knew this was going to happen. we saw this strong and robust police presence all throughout st. louis. the governor had a press conference where he just basically said, before the announcement wise made, be peaceful in your protests. there were many indications leading up to the announcement that darren wilson would not be indicted. would essentially go free. many parts of st. louis were seeing respond to this. at this moment because there's so much happening at one moment, we want to cross from this area to dellwood. we showed you this earlier this hour. not actually a car dealership. this is like a recreational

center. this is the parking lot of a rec center that by now you're seeing half a dozen cars on fire as this aerial pulls back. you'll see a neighboring building also on fire. one of several that we've seen over the past few hours. everything from a fast food pizza location to a beauty salon. many locally owned businesses. our reporters telling us, many of these are black-owned businesses with protesters saying, you are making the situation worse. let's connect with the mayor of dellwood, missouri, reggie jones. he joins us on the line. thank you for joining us on cnn. what kind of handle do you have on the multiple fires in your district right now? >> you know, again, thanks for having me an. to clarify something. that is a car lot on fire. a car dealership that's on fire. the recreation center is behind

that car lot. that is a car lot on fire. next to that is a gas station. the fire district does not feel safe coming out to put out fires because of the gunshots and the looting taking place. they are refusing basically to come out and put these fires out. >> how did you respond to today's announcement that darren wilson would not be indicted and that many residents there would be furious about that? how did you respond as mayor? >> i didn't have a response. i wanted to wait until the evidence would be released so we could look at the testimony and see what the witnesses brought to the grand jury. i don't really have a comment as far as my reaction of whether he was guilty or should have been indicted. my reaction is to see that the city of ferguson and the

surrounding city, dellwood, would be fully protected. the governor did call the national guard in. i don't see the national guard. i think there are some missteps that took place and we're seeing that tonight. we were promised we'd be protected, our businesses would be safe and that there was a plan. i don't see that plan being effected tonight. >> mayor reggie jones, just want to talk about what you see as your plans for tomorrow when day breaks and people wake up to the damage and destruction across the area. what do you see as the first thing you need to do in the morning? >> in the morning, i'll be out talking to business owners, assessing damage, trying to reassure that the city is behind them 100% like when we had the first set of looting and unrest in august 9th situation.

most of our businesses were satisfied with our response. everybody opened back up. nobody closed. i'm going to make sure we get that same relationship and our businesses are as confident the city will be behind them and try to help find some resources to make sure they can stay in our city. >> we're watching incredible aerial footage as you just updated, the vehicles at that car dealership continuing to be lit up one by one. moments ago, i saw a brief explosion at the bottom right of the screen. some say this violence, this response was expected. actually, stand by. we're going to continue to follow events out of missouri and take a short break. stay with us. she's still the one for you.

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what are you saying, that our lives are not equal? our lives are not worthy of not even a day in court? that's what you just said. >> and that's just a glimpse of that widespread sentiment that many have in ferguson, missouri, right now. welcome back. anger has turned to violence there after a grand injure r jud not to charge darren wilson in the shooting death of michael brown. a number of buildings have been

set on fire. >> including the store where brown allegedly stole cigars just moments before he was confronted by wilson and fatally shot. you can see pictures of the looting taking place. >> we just spoke to the mayor of dellwood. he lamented at the fact the national guard wasn't in his district protecting that car district we saw on fire. live pictures where it's just approaching 1:30 in the morning there. we are getting word that governor nixon is sending additional national guard to the area. he's sending them to the police department to protect those officers so they can be deployed to otheriars. there's an effort to get the national guard out there but not where the mayor of dellwood would looike them to be. president obama spoke at the white house shortly after the announcement was made in the michael brown case. >> he said there's been enormous progress in race relations but the problems still exist. take a listen.

>> these are real issues. and we have to lift them up and not deny them or tamp them don. but we need to understand them and figure out, how do we make more progress? and that can be done. that won't be done by throwing bottles. that won't be done by smashing car windows. that won't be done by using this as an excuse to vandalize property and certainly won't be done by hurting anybody. >> as he was saying that, was really the moment things unfolded. we also heard from benjamin crump who spoke on their behalf. >> they wish that people will not be violent, people will be constructive and peaceful as they've asked all along. they want change. they want to not just make noise. they want to make a difference.

hopefully we can reach them through social media, through you out there on the street corner. we've got to find a way to reach them to say what we need now is people to be disciplined and dignified so we can try to address these racist issues that keep claiming our children's lives. that michael brown and the unknown michael browns are crying out from the ground saying we have to change this system that let people kill them and not held without consequence. >> those who needed to hear that message -- >> they were not tuned in to the tv at the time. did not hear that in time. we are standing by for a press update. we'll bring that to you as soon as it takes place. we're going to take a very short break. do stay with us here on cnn. cocoa or eggnog?

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welcome back to our continuing coverage of the breaking news from ferguson, missouri. >> let's get you up to speed on everything happening. it's just past 1:30 in the morning. violence erupted on the streets after a grand jury said they had no probable cause to charge a white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. protesters were seen looting businesses in the areas. a number of police vehicles were smashed and brned. and at this hour, a number of buildings were set on fire and are still burning. >> we want to take you back to those aerial shots from dellwood, missouri. this is a car dealership we were talking to you about. we had the mayor on from the

area. this is just devastating. certainly for dellwood. when you look here, the cars, we're expecting any moment to see an explosion there. once those cars hit the fuel in those cars, they will go up. this is a dangerous situation. of course, those pictures are coming and going. for the fire trucks have been unable to get close to a lot of these fires both with the cars and the houses or businesses, i should say, because it's just too dangerous. there were gunshots. so they weren't able to get close. we heard from our reporter stephanie elam, the fire brigade had to drop the hoses and leave the scene altogether. >> as we watch those live images, we spoke to the mayor of dellwood. he said ahead of all of this, many officials knew there could be a violent response if darren wilson wasn't indicted. this mayor of dellwood was assured that his businesses

would be safe, residents would be safe and the state government and local police would do all they can to protect those businesses. as he spoke to us, he said that's not happening right now. we can bring you the development that governor nixon is deploying an additional set of national guard troops to the situation. they aren't headed to that car dealership. they are headed to the ferguson police department to protect the hq of operations. speaking of the hq, we are expecting an update from officials at any moment now on all that's happened today. previously, i think you can see police chief ron johnson there in the back. previously a few months ago we'd get these daily updates. >> looks like we're about to hear. >> hey, listen. it's really too early to give you a full assessment of what's

going on. i know there's at least a dozen buildings that have been set on fire. most of those are total losses. i know i have two st. louis county police cars that are basically melted on florissant road just to the north of suburban. we've had a lot of incidents with officers being hit by rocks, batteries, different things like that. i personally heard about 150 shots fired. it's rail unfortunate this evening because he had planned and captain johnson and myself talked about the fact that we were really hoping for peaceful protests. and i mean that. we talked about it as early as this evening saying what it's going to be look tonight. it might not be too bad. might not be too bad is what captain johnson said. i shared that optimism. frankly, as soon as mr. mccullough announced the verdict, the officer started taking rocks and batteries. they talked to me. i was in clayton monitoring the press conference along with captain johnson. my senior staff and senior staff from the highway patrol in st.

louis at the time. and i told the troops, justice back off. just back off. we'll try to treat this like some sort of a festival or baseball game or something. boo that time, the protesters basically owned florissant road. we allowed them to linger there. well, the next thing that happened is we started losing glass across the street. and because of that, we decided to stage but not bring the tac units forward. thin started getting gunfire from across the street. based an that, we wanted to put the tac trucks in between the businesses and florissant road on the west side. we thought that would be a good thing to try to save the businesses. right about this time, we started having problems up to the south at florissant road and paul avenue or suburban avenue. so i actually had a reporter. i won't name the media that came past me and he said, fellas, be

careful. there's a whole lot of guns in there. and that was at the meinekeiar at the time which was just about 50 meters to the north of us. so we started seeing a trash can on fire. then noticed the police car on fire, then a second police car on fire. we may or may not have made an arrest in that case for knowingly burning on the police car. we have about a dozen buildings burning. this has extended up to old haulsferry and up west florissant even across of the clock tower. a lot of gunfire. i'm disappointed in this evening. i really don't have any hesitation in telling you, i didn't see a lot of peaceful protests out there tonight and i'm disappointed. i'm not saying there were folks out there for the right reason. i'm not saying that wasn't the case. but this spun out of control, and, frankly, what i've seen

tonight and i've been up there all evening right in the middle of it with captain johnson, what i've seen tonight is probably much worse than the worst night we ever had in august. and that's truly unfortunate. i said several months ago during an interview what would be the worst thing that could possibly happen and the fact of the matter is i said to tear the fabric of this community apart. and frankly, that has happened here tonight. there's not a lot left on west florissa florissant. and those are businesses that may never come back. so, frankly, i'm heartbroken about that. the good news is, we've not fired a shot, as far as i know. we don't have any -- any serious injuries to police officers. they are banged up a little with rocks. one lieutenant from the patrol got hit in the head with a glass bottle. we don't have any serious injuries. as far as i know, we haven't caused any serious juries. we did deploy teargas. i talked to the sergeant from the highway patrol. he goes, we were in a death

funnel. there was no way we were getting out of this. we also deployed gas at west florissant and chambers this evening. i'm very uplifted by the fact we don't have any loss of life because that's the main goal here is preservation of life. but i am disaponrkppointed the evening turned out this way. i'd like to turn the microphone over to the captain. >> it's important we did not lose any lives. no officers lost their lives and no citizens lost their lives. the officers showed great courage but i am disappointed just like the chief when i look at our community that's torn apart. last august we talked about the out of towners came in and tore up our community. well, our community is about to take responsibility for what happened tonight. for what happened tonight as far as tearing our community apart. this cannot happen. we talked about peaceful prot t

protests and that did not happen tonight. we definitely have done something here that's going to impact our community for a long time and impact our region. that's not how we create change. change is created through our voice and not through destruction of our community. if you go along west florissant, those are dreams. small business owners. we've torn those dreams away. for weeks we've talked about wanting to have dreams and have jobs and then we do this tonight. we have to do better as a region and a community. i agree with the chief. we're really disappointed. we all talked today about the hope for this region and what we expected today. so thank you. >> i have one more comment real quick before we take questions. our heart goes out to university city officer shot tonight, i believe on canton. i don't know his status right now. he's at an area hospital. as far as i know that's totally unrelated to any events in ferguson. >> two questions. what happened to the national

guard? weren't they supposed to be here to help protect all these businesses? and by making this announcement so late in the evening, did that put you at a substantial tactical disadvantage? >> i don't think the announcement had much bearing. it was going to happen at some point. as far as the guard goes, they had a steady build-up throughout the day. it's certainly understandable that we can pretty much right now use all the assets we can have. i'm looking forward to additional guard assets to assist these officers to get out here and deal whith the problems and perhaps the guard can help with some force protection. >> speak to damage in surrounding communities. how it spread outside of ferguson. >> there was a big blockage downtown on 44 and they started losing some windows in the shaw area. i really don't know beyond that. >> city hall was damaged by fire tonight. is that true? >> oh, the dellwood city hall. >> no it was the business right

next to it, the fire station. we thought it was city hall. >> one of the problems we had was trying to cut traffic off at west florissant and chambers. when i talked to the sergeant on the scene he said you have enough cars to shut the traffic. he said there was so much gunfire in the area i was afraid to leave my officers down there. it's a dynamic evening tonight. i had a question over here. >> the officer fired at the mcdonald's on west florissant. we heard maybe an officer fired at. >> i think that's certainly possible with the amount of gunfire. i heard that over the radio on south florissant. i can tell you that kevin johnson and i, when we were in one of the areas an west florissant, the officers and ourselves, we got lit up. i can't imagine that they didn't hit one of us, but by the grace of god. ma'am? >> did law enforcement underestimate the reaction of the grand jury? the governor held a news conference. you there were.

captain johnson was there. you all said you had a plan. we are prepared. we are ready. and you look at what is happening now in ferguson and in st. louis, how can you say -- >> i don't think we were underprepared but i'll be honest. unless we bring 10,000 policemen in here, i don't think we can prevent folks that are intent on just destroying a community. it doesn't take long to throw kerosene in a building and brn it as you're running past. in this area where a lot of it is dark, the officers don't have the ability to understand what's going on around them. i think we had a good plan. we do have a good plan. we're going to move forward with the same plan, and our pledge was to protect everybody, including the businesses. we're certainly working very hard right this moment to do that. >> -- let you know in advance what the announcement was going to be as far as the grand jury? the governor said that he did

not know. if you did get a heads-up, do you think that would have helped in any way? >> i had a very good heads-up along with chief dodson and kevin johnson yesterday about this. some things had to be firm upped and that was firmed up this morning. >> not that there was -- >> no, i didn't know it was going to be a nonindictment. i had no idea about that. >> would that have helped if you knew that an hour or two before? >> no, i don't really believe it would. that's contrary to how we run the grand jury process. i just feel look that's information that we really shouldn't be privy to. protect that process. i talked to mr. mccullough today. he told me the timeline of the announcement and said the only thing i won't tell you is the verdict. i said i understand that. i wouldn't ask. i understand your question and the reasoning, but, you know, with the way we have a grand jury process, i don't think

that's appropriate. >> how do you respond to the business owners who are sitting at home right now watching their businesses brn to the ground. >> captain johnson and i and sam dodson have spent countless and countless hours engaging this community. we've talked to the don't shoot coalition. we've spoken to the lost voices, other groups. we've been at meetings mondays after mondays after mondays. some were productive. some weren't. we met wither clergy. i guess what i'd tell those business owners, we not only were engaged but did frg we could to prevent this. unfortunately what is a very dangerous environment for everybody to include the protesters and the police officers. there are protesters out here for the right reason. tonight it just didn't seem that way. >> what will you do tomorrow to prevent this? >> we'll probably have some more guard assets in there.

that should free up some officers. i appreciate that. we'll have a plan going forward with some operational stuff that i prefer not to go into that captain johnson and i have just discussed inside. and i think it will mitigate some of the issues. frankly, one of the problems is we don't really know what anything is going to look like sometimes until it happens. as dynamic as august was, can you imagine a night like this? we didn't have anything of this magnitude. so it was very difficult, i think, to tell graph exactly what we should have expected. i didn't foresee an evening like this. i will be honest with you. >> [ inaudible ]. >> 29 arrests, as far as i know. i do have -- i have some objects in the truck, if you could film those. i have a .45 semiautomatic handgun seized on south florissant road in an effort -- stand there looking at this.

at some point it's incumbent upon law enforcement to get to a point we have to control certainiars. we have two police cars an fire, situations like that. we have to get people to cooperate with us so we can do our job and prevent problems. i had a reporter from france come up to me on south florissant road. he had just a gash here where he'd been hit by a rock. we had a man run over this evening. he was carjacked. the people who carjacked him ran him over. elderly man. these are things that -- >> all right. we are clearly having some audio issues there as we listen in to this police news conference there in jennings, missouri. we heard from the st. louis county. he said at least a dozen buildings have been set fire. 29 people have been arrested. a number of guns have been seized. and 150 shots were afford. it was interesting because both

he and captain ron johnson emphasized how disappointed they were and how they really did not expect this to be the outcome. and ron johnson said the community has to take responsibility for this. they can no longer start blaming the people coming in from the outside. >> he reiterated the point he made after the initial unrest and said we have to do better. despite the preparation by local police, the state trooper and the national guard, and they alluded to it there. we cannot be everywhere and control everything. he said you could have thousands of officers out here and still one person, take that flammable liquid and throw it into a building and cause havoc. we'll continue to follow everything happening. we've re-established connection there with the press conference. let's listen in. >> and as i walked out here, i noticed there was a used car lot on fire. >> what about the role of

clergy. they were so instrumental in august. what did you see from them tonight and what can you hope for them in the upcoming days? >> we did not see a large number of clergy out tonight. we did not see a large number ot tonight. the fouhy saw didn't really have a voice with the crowd. hopefully tomorrow we'll -- it's going to take everyone. >> why do you think that is? why not the large presence we saw back in august? >> i don't know. i really expected we were going to see a large clergy out today. we met with a lot of clergy and did not see them out tonight. >> anyone shot tonight? >> no, no one was shot tonight. there was no loss of life and no shots fired by officers. >> captain johnson, how many times have you had to reassess strategy? >> i think we're always assessing it. like chief talked about, we could never have imagined this.

we will talk about it and make sure that we have a proper assessment tomorrow and make whatever changes we can for this community. >> what's your reaction to what you see, what you witnessed? >> hurt. a lot of pain. it's watching part of your life just go up in flames. >> the role of the national guard, i heard an interview with the mayor saying he reached out to governor nixon's office trying to get the national guard by those businesses. what was the role tonight of the national guard? >> i don't know about the conversation the mayor had. we are going to use them to help free up our officers. >> do you think there's a place for a curfew to come back here. >> at this point a curfew wouldn't have made a difference. this started really early. we'll continue to do what we need to do to make this community safe. >> can you make a comment on the

mentality of your officers out there? they are going through a lot. can you make a comment on what they are going through? >> i saw a lot of disappointment in their faces. they put a lot of courage and heart and soul. there's a lot of disappointment in them also. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we don't have the exact addresses and locations but we'll have that later on. if you want to check with us later or some time tomorrow we'll definitely have where they are from. >> a lot of the businesses may not come back. the idea is these businesses might come back. can you talk about where ferguson goes from here and what the legacy of the city is going to be and if the city is going to survive at all? >> if we are going to survive at all, we're going to have to come together. what happened tonight can't continue on. if we're going to come together and be better, we have to come together and make some changes. we have to understand this community has to be whole. right now this community is really fractured. >> thank you guys.

>> thanks, guys. >> thank you. >> that concludes the press update from captain ron johnson and john bellmar there, part of this unified command force. all the different jurisdictions coming together for security. not just in ferguson but the surrounding suburbs as well. speaking to the media on what was a positive night as far as no shots fired. >> no deaths. >> no deaths but they're disaponted because there are at least a dozen buildings on fire. some of those still blazing at this hour. the fire officials can't get close to the car dealership at last check because of gunshots heard in the area. we heard one of the officials saying they heard at least 150 shots by one person's estimate in one place. so officials certainly disappointed. especially after these efforts to bring the community and local police closer. they also asked where was clergy this time around. three months ago after the shooting, they were very visible

on the streets. trying to keep the peace. they weren't as visible, as evident after this announcement that darren wilson would not be indicted on any of the charges ahead of him. so this is the scene we're watching right now. anger at the center of all of this. it's manifesting itself into physical property damage of local business owners. >> we heard one of the questions there, a number of people suggesting, where was the national guard as we heard from the st. louis county police chief. even if you get 10,000 police, national guard on the streets, it's not going to contain this sort of anger. he was pretty much saying in the end, the strategy was move back. treat it like a festival of some sort. just let it play out. the fire trucks were not able to get to these areas to contain any of these fires. businesses, family businesses burned down just to the ground. just devastating. >> probably most troubling for

residents there is none of this is over or has been concluded. what's at the core of this, this emotion and feeling that many residents have that they're not treated fairly by police. it will man test itself and continue until some way that's fixed. you're watching cnn's continuing coverage. we'll have more. our correspondents there and the latest information on the other end of this break. do stay with us. goodnight. goodnight.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> if you are in the street, you need to exit the street immediately. or you will be subject to an arrest. >> anger after a grand jury decides not to charge police officer darren wilson in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager. >> what are you saying? that our lives are not equal? our lives are not worthy? hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm