U2 has announced it is canceling Saturday's stadium show in St. Louis amid the protests over Friday's acquittal of a police officer charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of African-American driver.
"We have been informed by the St. Louis Police Department that they are not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size," the band said in a joint statement with tour promoter Live Nation published on U2's website.
"We have also been informed that local crowd security personnel would not be at full capacity," they explained. "In light of this information, we cannot in good conscience risk our fans’ safety by proceeding with tonight’s concert. As much as we regret having to cancel, we feel it is the only acceptable course of action in the current environment."
The resulting protests have seen the injury of 10 officers and 23 arrests made in the hours after Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson found former St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer Jason Stockley not guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action after a bench trial with no jury.
