Missouri police fired wooden bullets at crowd during protest over teen's death

Police fired at protesters with solid wooden bullets during the latest demonstrations in Missouri against the killing by a police officer of an unarmed black 18-year-old, Michael Brown.

The morning after demonstrators in Ferguson reported being shot by what they called “wooden pellets”, the Guardian found three wooden rounds along the side of a street where clashes had taken place.

Asked to confirm that police had fired them at protesters, Brian Schellman, a spokesman for St Louis County police, said in an email on Tuesday morning: “Yes those are less lethal wooden baton rounds.”

Steve Walsh, 26, said that he was struck in the neck by a “wooden pellet” after becoming caught up in clashes while walking to the home of his two-month-old son, Saveon, and the child’s mother.

Walsh had a bloody, coin-sized wound behind his left ear. He appeared disoriented and drenched in sweat. “I almost fainted,” said Walsh. “Blood just started coming out. I was just walking through.”

Other demonstrators retreating from police said that they had seen others struck by the wooden rounds. “I saw a man get hit on the side of his face,” said Damon Bevly, 19, who works for a recycling company. “He had a fat bruise.”

On the same street on Tuesday morning were the remains of a Triple Chaser-branded CS gas canister and empty magazines for 60 Cal. Stinger 37mm rubber bullets.

Dozens of the rubber bullets were scattered around the street among some small rocks. Police said they used crowd control weapons against demonstrators after rocks were thrown at officers.

Comparable baton rounds are advertised commercially as a crowd control measure that is “suitable for administering a means of pain compliance over a greater distance than most of its counterparts”.

A report by the American Civil Liberties Union on “less lethal” weapons states: “Wooden bullets are often used to disperse protesters and in riot control situations.

“For example, in April 2003, police in Oakland, California, fired wooden bullets into a crowd protesting the Iraq war, leaving large raised welts on those hit by the projectiles.”

The Oakland police department agreed in 2004 to stop using the “less lethal” weapons against demonstrators after dozens of people injured in the protest, some by wooden bullets, sued.