CLAYTON, Mo. — A St. Louis county grand jury formally announced today that it would not indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on charges connecting to his fatal shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown last August.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch made the announcement before a massive media circus in downtown Clayton as the entire St. Louis region prepares for a backlash of public demonstrations and protests.
McCulloch began by offering sympathies to the Brown family, and emphasized that he presented all of the evidence available to the grand jury, which was convened before the shooting occurred.
“All 12 jurors heard all testimony and examined every item of evidence…they were extremely engaged in the process, asking questions of every witness, requesting specific information and asking for specific physical evidence,” McCulloch said.
Rep. Jeff Roorda — a Democrat and former police officer who has spoken on behalf of officers in the past and is board member of Shield of Hope — lauded the work of McCulloch.
“There’s not a prosecutror in America with more integrity than Bob McCulloch,” Roorda said. “Suddenly he’s the focus of criticism for presenting every single piece of evidnce to grand jury. Can you imagine the avalanche of criticism he would be under if he would have withheld just one piece of evidence?”
Roorda said that he agreed with the need for a “larger dialogue” about race relations in Missouri and the United States, but said Wilson was essentially being used as a scapegoat.
“We can’t make Darren Wilson pay for generations of perceived misdeeds,” Roorda said.
Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat, rejected the decision.
“I have long been on the opposing side of prosecutor Bob McCulloch on the Michael Brown grand jury case,” Nasheed said in a statement. “I even started a petition, which received approximately 117,000 signatures, calling for his removal from the case. The prosecutor has a history with the African-American community in this city, leading me and many of my colleagues to believe he would not be able to remain unbiased on this case, even though it has been made clear that the outcome of this case could very possibly lead to further unrest and public suspicion of our local law enforcement.”
More than 100 days have passed since the unarmed Brown was shot and killed after some kind of altercation with Wilson. Several witnesses have testified that Brown was shot and killed while attempting to surrender to Wilson after a brief altercation. Police maintain — though not officially, as Wilson’s official account of the shooting has never been released — that Brown punched Wilson, reached for the officer’s gun, and eventually died while charging toward the officer.
In the immediate aftermath following Brown’s death, protestors gathered outside the Ferguson police department only to be met with a swift and sometimes heavy-handed police response. In the unrest following Brown’s death, demonstrations have varied from a small number of individuals to marches with hundreds of participants.
Several citizen-led groups have formed in the wake of Brown’s death to protest what they call an unfair and fundamentally racist local police and county government structure. Those same groups have promised large-scale demonstrations around the St. Louis area if Wilson is not indicted.
Concerns over the scale and nature of protests after the decision by the grand jury has much of the city on edge. Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency last week in order to call Missouri’s National Guard to Ferguson to support local police. The FBI and the Justice Department also have more than 100 total agents in St. Louis.
In the hours, days and week leading up to the announcement, St. Louis became the focus of national and international media attention and plenty of internal tension. Local gun sales have spiked in recent weeks. Some businesses in Clayton closed early or even boarded up ahead of the protests likely to take to the streets. Schools from around the region have announced early closure or cancelled after-school activities, fearing protests could interfere with bus routes.
Nixon, along with St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay held a press conference hours before the announcement urging peace and promising professionalism from police officers. Demonstrations are expected to continue throughout the night and for days to come.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
