The governor of the US state of Missouri has dispatched the National Guard to the town of Ferguson, where police have been using tear gas to clear protesters off the streets late Sunday.
Governor Jay Nixon says he's signed the order to help restore peace and protect the citizens of Ferguson.
The move comes as protests escalate over the police shooting of an unarmed black man earlier this month.
A peaceful protest turned sour on Sunday before a second night under curfew began.
Captain Ron Johnson is with the Missouri Highway Patrol.
"There were multiple additional reports of Molotov cocktails being thrown, police were shot at, makeshift barricades were set up to block police. Bottles and rockets were thrown at police. Based on these conditions, I had no alternative but to elevate the level of our response."
The latest confrontation comes hours after the US Justice Department ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on the victim, who was fatally shot by a white police officer.
A preliminary autopsy has found the teenager was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.
The shooting has prompted a week of protests as racial tensions rise between the predominantly black community and the mostly white Police Department in Ferguson.
