ST. LOUIS (AP) – A couple hundred demonstrators have blocked traffic for about half an hour on the western edge of St. Louis in an unannounced protest of the not-guilty verdict for a white former police officer charged in the shooting death of a black suspect.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the protesters briefly blocked traffic near the southwest corner of Forest Park Thursday afternoon. Police formed a line to keep the protesters from walking onto Interstate 64.

Protest organizers had announced a gathering in the early evening downtown for white supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Protest leader Rev. Darryl Gray said the group will continue to disrupt the economy and the peace until its leaders see changes in the St. Louis Police Department.