Grand jury doesn't indict Ferguson cop in shooting
|
| St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announces the grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year old, on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, at the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, Mo. |
FERGUSON, Mo.
(AP) -- A grand jury declined Monday to indict Darren Wilson in the
death of Michael Brown, the unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal
shooting by a white officer sparked weeks of sometimes-violent protests
and exposed deep racial tension between many African-Americans and
police.
Within minutes of the announcement by
St. Louis County's top prosecutor, crowds began pouring into Ferguson
streets to protest the decision. Some taunted police, shattered windows
and vandalized cars.
Several gunshots were also heard. Officers released
smoke and pepper spray to disperse the gatherings.
Prosecuting
Attorney Bob McCulloch said the jury of nine whites and three blacks
met on 25 separate days and heard more than 70 hours of testimony from
about 60 witnesses, including three medical examiners and other experts
on blood, toxicology and firearms.
He stressed
that jurors were "the only people who heard every witness ... and every
piece of evidence." He said many witnesses presented conflicting
statements that were inconsistent with the physical evidence.
"These grand jurors poured their hearts and soul into this process," he said.
As
McCulloch was reading his statement, Michael Brown's mother, Lesley
McSpadden, was sitting atop a vehicle listening to a broadcast of the
announcement. When she heard the decision, she burst into tears and
began screaming before being whisked away by supporters.
The
crowd with her erupted in anger, converging on the barricade where
police in riot gear were standing. They pushed down the barricade and
began pelting police with objects, including a bullhorn. Officers stood
their ground.
At least nine votes would have
been required to indict Wilson. The grand jury met in secret, a standard
practice for such proceedings.
Speaking for
nearly 45 minutes, a defensive McCulloch repeatedly cited what he said
were inconsistencies and erroneous accounts from witnesses. When asked
by a reporter whether any of the accounts amount to perjury, he said, "I
think they truly believe that's what they saw, but they didn't."
The
prosecutor also was critical of the media, saying "the most significant
challenge" for his office was a "24-hour news cycle and an insatiable
appetite for something - for anything - to talk about."
Brown's
family released a statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed"
in the decision but asked that the public "channel your frustration in
ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix
the system that allowed this to happen."
President Barack Obama appealed for calm and understanding, pleading with both residents and police to show restraint.
"We
are a nation built on the rule of law, so we need to accept that this
decision was the grand jury's to make," Obama said. He said it was
understandable that some Americans would be "deeply disappointed - even
angered," but echoed Brown's parents in calling for any protests to be
peaceful.
The Justice Department is conducting
a separate investigation into possible civil rights violations that
could result in federal charges. The department also has launched a
broad probe into the Ferguson Police Department, looking for patterns of
discrimination.
The Aug. 9 shooting inflamed
tensions in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb that is patrolled
by an overwhelmingly white police force. As Brown's body lay for hours
in the center of a residential street, an angry crowd of onlookers
gathered. Rioting and looting occurred the following night, and police
responded with armored vehicles and tear gas.
Protests
continued for weeks - often peacefully, but sometimes turning violent,
with demonstrators throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and police
firing smoke canisters, tear gas and rubber bullets. Missouri Gov. Jay
Nixon to briefly summon the National Guard.
Outside
the Ferguson Police Department on Monday night, St. Louis County police
used a bullhorn to order a crowd to disperse, saying it had become an
unlawful assembly. Protesters defied the orders and some chanted
"murderer." Minutes later, four gunshots were heard down the street.
Hours
before the decision was made public, Nixon urged people to remain
peaceful as he appeared at a news conference with the state's public
safety director and the leaders of St. Louis city and county.
"Our
shared hope and expectation is that regardless of the decision, people
on all sides show tolerance, mutual respect and restraint," Nixon said.
Some
black leaders and Brown's parents questioned McCulloch's ability to be
impartial. The prosecutor's father, mother, brother, uncle and cousin
all worked for the St. Louis Police Department, and his father was
killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect in 1964.
McCulloch was 12 at the time, and the killing became a hallmark of his
initial campaign for elected prosecutor.
Nixon
declined to seek the removal of McCulloch in the Brown case, but he
also called for McCulloch to
vigorously prosecute Wilson, who had been
on the Ferguson force for less than three years. Prior to that job,
Wilson was an officer for nearly two years in Jennings, another St.
Louis suburb.
McCulloch, a Democrat, has been in office since 1991 and was re-elected to another term earlier this month.
Among
the cases that McCulloch's opponents cited as examples of pro-police
bias was the 2000 shooting death of two men in a fast-food parking lot
by two undercover drug officers in the town of Berkeley, which like
Ferguson is a predominantly black suburb in what locals call North
County.
A federal investigation determined
that Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley were unarmed and that their car had
not moved forward when the officers fired 21 shots. But that inquiry
also determined that the shootings were justified since the officers
feared for their lives.
McCulloch opted to not
prosecute the two officers and characterized the victims as "bums" who
"spread destruction in the community" by selling drugs.
