Ferguson, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is lifting a curfew while ordering the National Guard to help restore order in a St. Louis suburb that has seen sometimes violent protests since the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Nixon deployed the Guard Monday following an overnight clash between armored police and what he called "a violent criminal element intent upon terrorizing the community."

The unrest followed the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white.

The neighborhood has been under a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew the past two days, after Nixon declared a state of emergency. The governor says in a statement that the curfew is now lifted.

He says the Guard will be under the direction of the state Highway Patrol.

Nixon said the National Guard would help "in restoring peace and order" to Ferguson.

"These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes," Nixon said in a statement.

The latest confrontations came on the same day Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on Brown, and as a preliminary private autopsy reported by The New York Times found Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.