“This is for Michael Brown,” a gunman told victims during a weekend robbery outside a restaurant in St. Louis, according to police. Via local outlet KSDK TV-5:
According to police, the robbery happened Saturday evening in the 1100 block of Mississippi Avenue. Six diners had just left Eleven Eleven. While walking north along Mississippi, police said two black men approached the victims.
One of the suspects pointed a gun at the victims and demanded their property. After the second suspect grabbed items from the victims, the armed suspect stated “this is for Michael Brown,” a reference to the unarmed teenager shot and killed Aug. 9 by a Ferguson police officer. Both suspects ran away after the robbery.
Tensions remain high in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, and surrounding areas. Earlier this month, protesters attempted to shut down Interstate 70 during the evening rush hour, but were thwarted by police.
The tensions have also spread: In late August, a white Mississippi man was assaulted by a mob of black men in West Point, Miss. The victim, Ralph Weems IV, had reportedly been warned that the restaurant he was entering, a Waffle House, was not safe for whites, because local citizens gathered there were upset about the killing of Michael Brown. After arguing with patrons gathered there, he left. The crowd reportedly followed him to a different restaurant, where they attacked him.