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ByJimSalterandTom Foreman Jr. Associated Press FERGUSON, MO. Demon- strators temporarily shut down two large malls in suburban St. Louis on one of the busiest shopping days of the year Friday, as ral- lies were held nationwide to protest a grand jury's re- cent decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson. Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200 protesters sprawled onto the floor while chant- ing, "Stop shopping and join the movement" at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights a few miles south of Ferguson, where officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown, who was unarmed, in August. The protest prompted au- thorities to close the mall for about an hour Friday afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. It didn't appear that any arrests were made. The protests were among the largest in the coun- try on Black Friday, along with rallies elsewhere in the country including Chi- cago, New York, Seattle and northern California, where protesters chained them- selves to trains. "We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual," Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor at Clem- son University in South Car- olina, said at a rally at a Wal-Mart in Manchester, another St. Louis suburb. Monday night's an- nouncement that Wilson, who is white, wouldn't be indicted for fatally shoot- ing Brown, who was black, prompted violent protests that resulted in about a dozen buildings and some cars being burned. Dozens of people were arrested. The rallies have been on- going but have grown more peaceful this week, as pro- testers turn their attention to disrupting commerce. Mindy Elledge, who runs a watch kiosk at the Galle- ria, said it was working. "I think people are afraid to come here," Elledge said. "With the protests going on, you never know when or where they're going to happen." In northern California, more than a dozen people were arrested after about 125 protesters wearing T- shirts that read "Black Lives Matter" interrupted train service from Oakland to San Francisco, with some chaining themselves to trains. Dozens of people in Seattle blocked streets, and police some protesters also apparently chained doors shut at the nearby Pacific Place shopping center. In Chicago, about 200 people gathered near the city's popular Magnifi- cent Mile shopping dis- trict, where Kristiana Co- lon, 28, called Friday "a day of awareness and engage- ment." She's a member of the Let Us Breathe Collec- tive, which has been taking supplies such as gas masks to protesters in Ferguson. "We want them to think twice before spending that dollar today," she said of shoppers. "As long as black lives are put second to ma- terialism, there will be no peace." Malcolm London, a leader in the Black Youth Project 100, which has been organizing Chicago pro- tests, said the group was also trying to rally sup- port for other issues, such as more transparency from Chicago police. FERGUSON Protestsclosesome malls, shut down trains JEFFROBERSON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Eugene Gillis plays Christmas carols on his trumpet Friday along a section of West Florissant Avenue that saw heavy damage on Monday in Ferguson, Mo. By Jim Vertuno Associated Press AUSTIN, TEXAS A gun- man fired more than 100 rounds at downtown buildings in Austin and tried to set the Mexican Consulate ablaze early Fri- day before he died during a confrontation with po- lice, authorities said. Some of the targeted buildings are near the pop- ular Sixth Street entertain- ment district, where bars close at 2 a.m., about the same time the shootings began. Thousands of people are typically on the street at that time, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said. "Many, many rounds were fired in downtown Austin," Acevedo said. "With all the people on the streets, we're very for- tunate. I give thanks that no one but the suspect is injured or deceased." Investigators identified the shooter as 49-year-old Larry McQuilliams of Aus- tin. Police said he a crim- inal record but didn't re- lease details, and said they were still trying to deter- mine a motive. Mexico's Foreign Rela- tions Department issued a statement expressing "profound concern and condemnation" of the at- tack, but also said "there is no evidence the shots were exclusively directed at our facility." Other targeted build- ings included Austin po- lice headquarters and the U.S. courthouse. Acevedo said a sergeant, while holding the reins of two police horses after his patrol, shot the gunman just outside the main en- trance to police headquar- ters. But Acevedo said it's not clear if the shot was fa- tal or if McQuilliams took his own life. His targets were lo- cated throughout down- town Austin and officers received multiple reports of gunfire, though the en- tire incident lasted about 10 minutes from the first call, Acevedo said. Officers approached McQuilliams after he had been shot, but noticed cyl- inders in his vehicle, which was nearby. They also dis- covered he was wearing a vest they thought may have been rigged to ex- plode. Officers retreated and a bomb squad was called, but it was later de- termined that the items were not explosive. The shooter's white van was still on the street out- side police headquarters several hours after the shooting. Its doors, the trunk and hood were open as investigators looked it over. The fire at the consulate was extinguished before any significant damage was done to the building. The federal courthouse's guard house was shot sev- eral times, as was police headquarters, which Ace- vedo said was "extensively damaged." AUSTIN Police: Man fired 100- plus rounds downtown By Frederic J. Frommer Associated Press WASHINGTON Several members of the Congres- sional Black Caucus are urging the Obama admin- istration to withhold fed- eral recognition of a Vir- ginia Indian tribe because of its history of banning intermarriage with blacks. In January, the Interior Department proposed rec- ognizing the Pamunkey tribe in southeast Vir- ginia, which would make members eligible for spe- cial benefits in educa- tion, housing and medi- cal care — and allow the tribe to pursue a casino. A decision on recognition, which would be the first for a Virginia tribe, is due by March 30. The Congressional Black Caucus members urged Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Attorney General Eric Holder to hold off until the Justice Department investigates any discriminatory prac- tices by the tribe. Neither department has responded to the request, made in a Sept. 23 letter, according to a spokeswoman for Mis- sissippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, who signed the letter. The letter cited a re- port by the Interior De- partment's Bureau of In- dian Affairs that quoted tribal law: "No member of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe shall intermarry with anny (sic) Nation ex- cept White or Indian un- der penalty of forfeiting their rights in Town." The bureau said it had no indication the tribe had changed its ban, but Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown responded in a letter to the CBC that the ban has been repealed. He said in an interview that the change was made in 2012. The Bureau of Indian Affairs said that the signif- icant number of Pamun- key-Pamunkey marriages and efforts to encourage them helped satisfy a cri- terion for federal recogni- tion: that a predominant portion of the group com- prises a distinct commu- nity and has existed as one from historical times to the present. The black lawmakers called the government findings disturbing. "The BIA seems to justify the discrimination and sur- prisingly cites this as a reason" to recognize the tribe, their letter said. NATIVE AMERICANS Pa st b an o n ma rr yi ng blacks may mar tribe The Associated Press KOBANI, SYRIA Blocks of low-rise buildings with hol- low facades, shattered con- crete, streets strewn with rubble and overturned, crumpled remains of cars and trucks. Such is the landscape in Kobani, where the sounds of rifle and mor- tar fire resonate all day long in fighting between Islamic State extremists and the Syrian town's Kurdish de- fenders. Kurdish fighters peek through sand-bagged po- sitions, firing at suspected militant positions. Female fighters in trenches move quickly behind sheets strung up to block the view of snipers. Foreign jets cir- cle overhead. An exclusive report shot by a videojournalist inside Kobani offered a rare, in- depth glimpse of the hor- rendous destruction that more than two months of fighting has inflicted on the Kurdish town in northern Syria by the Turkish border. There, Kurdish fighters backed by small numbers of Iraqi peshmerga forces and Syrian rebels, are locked in what they see as an existen- tial battle against the mili- tants, who swept into their town in mid-September as part of a summer blitz af- ter the Islamic State group overran large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq. Helped by more than 270 airstrikes from a U.S.- led coalition and an Amer- ican airdrop of weapons, the Kurds have succeeded in halting the militants' ad- vance and now believe that a corner has been turned. Several fighters with the YPG, the main Kurdish fighting force, spoke con- fidently of a coming vic- tory. Jamil Marzuka, a se- nior commander, said the fighting has "entered a new phase" in the last week. "We can tell everyone, not just those on the front lines, that we are drawing up the necessary tactics and plans to liberate the city," he said. A YPG fighter, who iden- tified himself only by his first name, Pozul, said only small pockets of militants remain. Still, he said he and other fighters must remain wary as they move around because Islamic State snip- ers lurk amid the ruins and the militants have booby- trapped buildings they left behind. "They are scattered so as to give us the impression that there are a lot of them, but there are not," he said. The Kurds' claims of imminent victory may be overly ambitious. But the AP's reporting has found that the Islamic State group's drive has at least been blunted. Hundreds of militants have been killed, most of them by airstrikes. On Friday, activists said IS militants withdrew from large parts of the so-called Kurdish security quarter, an eastern district where Kurdish militiamen main- tain security buildings and offices. 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