Ferguson, Missouri -- A fragile peace shattered in Ferguson early Saturday, as looters again robbed neighborhood business while law enforcement officers -- who returned to the streets with riot gear, tactical rifles and armored vehicles -- looked on but largely didn't intervene.
Looters began Saturday's pillage at the Ferguson Market and Liquor store, which has become part of the case surrounding Brown. Shortly before Brown was shot last week, police say, a man fitting his description allegedly stole cigars and roughed up a store clerk as surveillance cameras recorded.
Release of the video on Friday angered some, who say police were using it to distract from Brown's killing and make him look bad.
More than two dozen people blocked off the store with cars early Saturday, then officers commanded them through loudspeakers to free it up.
Instead, bottles flew, mayhem erupted, and looters ransacked the store, which the owner had boarded up. It was the first of at least three stores raided.
Looters ran out of shops with boxes stacked in their arms up to their chins. Behind them lay overturned shelves, spilled goods and wrecked displays. All the while, police stayed back by their armored vehicles and observed but did not stop them.
Three Molotov cocktails pummeled the roof of a Domino's Pizza, burning a hole, before firefighters put the flames out.
About an hour later, about a dozen people lined up to block Ferguson Market and Liquor's entrance, saying they were keeping looters out. But before sunrise, looters returned there for a second round.
Owners of the raided stores expressed frustration that police, looking on nearby, didn't stop the looters.
"I understand that you're not safe either, but you still have a job to do now, and now you're not doing your job," Tanya Littleton, owner of the looted Feel Beauty Supply, said about police in an phone interview with CNN.
The beauty store's floor was littered with broken glass and merchandise, video from CNN affiliate KTVI showed. Looters took off with hair extensions worth at least $200 a bag, Littleton said.
"We're shut down for a while. It's not safe, and the police are doing nothing about it," she told KTVI.
Also targeted was Sam's Meat Market and Liquor. After hearing that people grabbed chicken, bacon and spirits from their store, the owners arrived with guns and stood outside, warding off any further raids.
Jay Kanzler, lawyer for Ferguson Market and Liquor, said police did nothing to stop the looting in town.
"Don't know why the ... police didn't do anything. They were told to stand down and I don't know why," Kanzler said.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon had put the Missouri State Highway Patrol in charge of protest security in Ferguson after days of sometimes violent clashes between police and protesters. CNN's call to the patrol Saturday morning wasn't immediately returned.
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