Dontey Carter stood at the head of a column of protesters screaming at police on West Florissant Avenue, the scene illuminated by street lamps, photographers' flashes and the fluttering spotlight of a surveillance helicopter.
"Nobody going home tonight," Carter, 24, shouted at the line of 40 helmeted, baton-wielding officers. He raised his arms in the "hands up, don't shoot" pose that has become the symbol of the protests that erupted after Michael Brown's death last year. Carter approached the officers, and demonstrators behind him surged forward.
Into the melee dived a bald man in a neon orange shirt, intercepting Carter as he approached the police line.