St. Louis police bracing for the worst ahead of Ferguson grand jury decision

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Police stepped up security and erected barricades in St. Louis on Sunday (Nov 23), bracing for the worst with a grand jury to decide whether to indict a white officer for shooting dead an unarmed black teenager.

Michael Brown, 18, a high-school graduate planning to go to technical college, was shot at least six times by Darren Wilson in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson on Aug 9, inflaming racial tensions and sparking weeks of protests, some violent.

The mostly black suburb of 21,000, which has an overwhelmingly white police force and town government, has been on edge for several days in anticipation of the jury's decision.

Metal interlocking fences and orange plastic barricades sealed off the Buzz Westfall Justice Centre in Clayton, another suburb of the city of St. Louis and where the grand jury has been meeting, with a handful of uniformed officers on duty outside.

Owners have boarded up shops and businesses in the part of Ferguson where protests were concentrated in August, also braced for a violent fallout if the jury does not indict Wilson.

Wilson reportedly told the grand jury he acted in self-defence after tussling with the youth. Others say Brown had his hands in the air when he was shot dead, his body left in the street for several hours.

The jury can either indict Wilson, meaning he could face trial for Brown's death, or determine there is no case for him to answer.

Brown's mother Lesley McSpadden on Saturday visited the spot in Ferguson where her son was killed, telling people that she did not want more clashes with police who were criticised for a heavy-handed response to the demonstrations in August.

"I just want y'all to be careful. Don't agitate them, don't let them agitate y'all. I don't want nobody getting hurt," she said.

US President Barack Obama has also called for calm, Missouri's governor declared a state of emergency and the FBI deployed extra personnel.