Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has spoken out on the calamity in Ferguson, Missouri, expressing sorrow for the death of Michael Brown and supporting an end to the violence.
Cruz wrote the following in a Thursday Facebook post:
The Saturday shooting death of Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a police officer led to vast unrest within Ferguson that included looting and vandalism. As mostly peaceful protesters have gathered in the days since the shooting, heavily armed SWAT teams have used tear gas, smoke bombs and rubber bullets on them.
On Wednesday, The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly and The Washington Post's Wesley Lowery were assaulted and arrested by police in a local McDonald's, as they were complying with orders to leave the fast-food joint. Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman, was also among those arrested on Wednesday night.
Reilly, Lowery and French have all since been released from jail.
Read a statement responding to the reporters' arrests from HuffPost's Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief Ryan Grim here.
President Barack Obama released a statement on Tuesday regarding Brown's death. Obama was at a Martha's Vineyard birthday party on Wednesday as the chaos continued, though he was briefed on the matter.
See more updates on the situation in Ferguson below: