Missouri's governor said on Monday he would send the National Guard into the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson where authorities used tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse a crowd protesting last week's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by police, Reuters reported. In an executive order signed after midnight, Governor Jay Nixon said he was dispatching the U.S. state militia to help restore peace after demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and shot at police as well as a civilian. "Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk," he said in a statement on his website. At around dusk on Sunday, hundreds of protesters including young children fled to safety after police wearing gas masks and body armor fired canisters of smoke to scatter them hours ahead of a planned midnight curfew in suburban Ferguson, Missouri.
