St. LOUIS (Dispatches) — Shop owners and residents were cleaning up broken glass, assessing damage and bracing for more protests Sunday after two nights of violence sparked by the acquittal of a white former police officer in the fatal shooting of a black man.
St. Louis County police said they arrested nine people Saturday night and early Sunday in suburban University City, home to Washington University, one day after protests that turned violent led to 33 arrests in two St. Louis neighborhoods.
A protest was planned for Sunday afternoon at the police headquarters downtown.
The University City Police Department said 23 businesses and five police vehicles were damaged Saturday night when protesters hurled rocks, bricks, water bottles filled with paint thinner or gasoline and balloons filled with red liquid.
The protests began Friday after a judge cleared former St. Louis Metropolitan police officer Jason Stockley of first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, during a high-speed car chase. Judge Timothy Wilson ruled Stockley acted in self-defense.
The decision prompted demonstrations Friday that left 11 police officers injured. Authorities made 33 arrests that night.
On Saturday, demonstrators marched through a shopping mall chanting "Black lives matter!" and "No justice, no peace!" At about 9 p.m., organizers announced to the crowd that the protest was a success, citing zero arrests. The crowd dispersed shortly thereafter.
About an hour later, a separate crowd gathered. A police line formed once the tension between demonstrators and police grew.  
A short time later, the St. Louis County and St. Louis Metropolitan Police Departments were called in to assist the University City police, according to a statement released by county police.
Wary of the protests that broke out in 2014 in nearby Ferguson, Mo., over the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer, authorities took precautions in St. Louis. Barricades were erected around police headquarters and the courthouse, among other sites, in anticipation of the verdict.