Two notable acts of violence have occurred during the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., near where police officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown on Aug. 9, where a memorial has been set up for the 18-year-old.
Marcus DiPaola, a journalist for Getty Images, and his colleague, Emily Molli, was attacked and robbed at gunpoint on Tuesday at the memorial site near the Canfield Green apartments.
Was attacked and robbed at gunpoint at the memorial.
— Marcus DiPaola (@MJDiPaola) November 26, 2014
All reporters: PLEASE DO NOT GO TO CANFIELD MEMORIAL. Was attacked and robbed at gunpoint.
— Marcus DiPaola (@MJDiPaola) November 26, 2014
According to the River Front Times, DiPaola and Molli had a video camera, their wallets and car keys stolen after a group of 15 to 20 men carrying guns and hammers followed them to their car.
“One guy pulled [the car door] back open, got a gun out of his backpack and pointed it at my head. He tells me to get out of the car and give me the keys,” Molli told the River Front Times. she complied with the demand.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Paul Hampel had an encounter with a group of men in the same area hours before DiPaola’s and Molli’s. One man there told him that if he wanted to get out of the area alive he should leave immediately.
The crowd of young men is growing here and one of them just told me that I had better leave if I want to leave alive. #Ferguson
— Paul Hampel (@phampel) November 25, 2014
Hampel told the River Front Times that a masked man in the group came up and asked “You think you’re safe here?”
The reporter told him no, and the man responded “If you want to get out of here fucking alive you better leave fucking now.”
A deadlier act of violence occurred in the Canfield area over night. The body of 20-year-old DeAndre Joshua was found in his car on Canfield Drive near the apartments around 9 a.m. Tuesday. His driver’s side window was shattered and blood soaked the ground.
Family members tied Joshua’s death to the protests, according to USA Today.
Joshua, who worked at Wal-Mart, was also good friends with Dorian Johnson, the man who was with Brown when Wilson shot him.