On Monday night, officials had hoped that the lifting of a curfew imposed over the weekend would cool tensions and end the looting and violence after police closed a roadway to traffic to provide a path for marchers, according to The Associated Press.
Police said some in the crowd hurled bottles, rocks and petrol bombs at officers, who responded by firing gas-filled canisters and a noise cannon to try to disperse the throng, the AP reported. Four officers were injured.
State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, who is overseeing security in Ferguson, said officers had come under "heavy gunfire" but did not return it. Riot police did confiscate two guns and what looked like a petrol bomb from protesters, according to the AP.
Johnson separately told CNN that two people were shot within the crowd, but not by police, and were taken to hospital, the AP reported. There was no immediate word on their condition.
"This has to stop," said Johnson, an African-American who grew up in the area, according to the AP. "I don't want anybody to get hurt. We have to find a way to stop this."
The disturbances are the worst since the angry but peaceful protests across the United States in July 2013, over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic who killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin during a scuffle in Florida, the AP reported.
According to a statement from the city, Ferguson's mayor, City Council and other employees have been exploring how to increase the number of African-American applicants to the law enforcement academy, develop incentive programs to encourage city residency for police officers and raise funds for cameras that would be attached to patrol car dashboards and officers' vests, the AP reported.
"We plan to learn from this tragedy, as we further provide for the safety of our residents and businesses and progress our community through reconciliation and healing," the leaders said in the statement Tuesday, according to the AP.
