Police Release Name Of Cop Who Shot Unarmed Teen Near St. Louis, Missouri
The Ferguson police department has released the name of the officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager last week in the suburb of St. Louis, Missouri following a call to investigate a robbery.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson announced Friday that the police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown was six-year police veteran Darren Wilson, who has been placed on administrative leave since the incident occurred last Saturday.
Thomas had previously refused to release Wilson's name, saying the officer had received numerous death threats. The small suburb of Ferguson, which is 70 percent black, has been involved in protests, riots and looting since the death of 18-year-old Brown late last week.
On Saturday afternoon, Wilson was reportedly dispatched to investigate a robbery at a convenience store in Ferguson. Local police say Wilson arrived at the scene and encountered Brown and a friend walking down the street. One of the two men shoved Wilson against his cop car and tried to take his gun. There was reportedly a struggle and Brown was shot several times, eventually dying from his wounds.
Brown's friend who witnessed the shooting has provided a different account of events, saying that Brown was walking down the street when Wilson ordered him into the cop car. Wilson then allegedly brandished a weapon and Brown ran, and Wilson fired shots at him.
Thousands of Ferguson residents have gathered for protest marches and prayer vigils, arguing that Brown, an unarmed teen, was wrongfully shot by Wilson. Many in the community and the nation are equating Brown's death to the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen shot in a Florida suburb by a neighborhood watchman.
Iesha Owens, who attended a prayer vigil for Brown, told The Sydney Morning Herald that: "My message I'm trying to get across is for Mike Brown - he needs justice for what happened to him."
"And not only just Mike Brown, but Trayvon Martin and anybody else who needs justice needs to be served. The cops have got to stop going around killing people. [The community] feels angry - they're mad, they're upset."