Protesters Clash with Police, Burn Flags, Damage Business near Shaw Shooting Site

Protesters lashed out at police on South Grand Boulevard Thursday night, injuring an officer and breaking windows near the site where an off-duty St. Louis police officer fatally shot eighteen-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers Jr. the night before.

Eight protesters were arrested after police broke up the protest around 1 a.m. with pepper spray, police said Friday morning. Five people were arrested for unlawful assembly, two for property damage and one for marijuana possession.

See also: St. Louis Police Officer Kills Teenager in Shaw Neighborhood, Ignites Fresh Protests

What started as a small, peaceful prayer vigil at the market where Myers bought a sandwich before he was shot grew into a demonstration with more than 100 protesters blocking traffic on Grand Boulevard.

Protesters moved south down Grand Boulevard, breaking the window of the Medicine Shoppe at Hartford Street, stealing an American flag from Beauvais Manor nursing home and throwing a brick through the window of a house on Flora Avenue, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Protesters also burned American flags...

Flag. Burning. "If you're mad, know: it's not our flag! It doesn't cover Black or Brown ppl." #shawshooting #ferguson pic.twitter.com/S04BeRa9fy

— Charles Wade (@akacharleswade) October 10, 2014

Flag about to burn https://t.co/bfbq4HROgB

— Search4Swag (@search4swag) October 10, 2014

...which unleashed a wave of Twitter fury from frustrated onlookers:

To the fucking ingrates in #Ferguson and #clayton you burn the flag I served to protect and others died to protect? YOUR WELCOME! Savages!

— I Matter! (@blainskywalker8) October 10, 2014

I support the first amendment right to burn an American flag. I also think it's ridiculously stupid. #Ferguson #StLouis

— Janessa Hall (@janessadhall) October 10, 2014

Soldiers died for our rights. Yes, right to protest. Yes, right to burn flag. But that doesn't mean you steal a flag and break a window

— Heidi Moore Baños (@hmoore013) October 10, 2014

@YourAnonGlobal @YourAnonNews Then go the FUCK home. Flag-burning thugs.

— White Orchid (@WhiteOrch1d) October 10, 2014

The protests marked the second night of unrest after Myers' shooting death. Police said Myers fired three shots at an off-duty officer patrolling for a private security firm. The officer, who was uninjured, fired seventeen shots in return, fatally wounding Myers.

Follow Lindsay Toler on Twitter at @StLouisLindsay. E-mail the author at Lindsay.Toler@RiverfrontTimes.com.