Ferguson tense ahead of grand jury decision
Tension has been mounting in Ferguson
and elsewhere in the St. Louis
area in recent days, with many speculating that the grand jury's decision would
be announced on Sunday, reports AP.
That seemed increasingly unlikely by late Saturday,
although there was a noticeable uptick in the preparations being made.
Downtown STL Inc., a St. Louis civic group that promotes
downtown businesses, told members in an email Saturday that the grand jury will
reconvene Monday to continue deliberating whether charges are warranted against
Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Brown.
The email did not explain how the group knew the
information, and a spokeswoman declined comment. Ed Magee, a spokesman for St.
Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch, didn't respond to several messages
Saturday.
The Brown family's attorney, Ben Crump, said Saturday that
he hadn't heard a decision had been reached and that prosecutors had promised
to tell him when that happened.
Barricades also went up in the shopping center parking lot
on West Florissant Avenue
in Ferguson ,
which was where police set up a makeshift command center in the immediate
aftermath of Brown's death.
Several dozen protesters marched in Ferguson on Saturday evening, praying,
playing music and chanting slogans including, "No justice, no peace"
and "Mike Brown means, we've got to fight back." Cars stopped and
drivers honked, slowing traffic.
Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, spoke to protesters
through a bullhorn and urged people to be careful.
"Don't agitate them, and don't let them agitate
y'all," she said. "I don't want nobody getting hurt. We're all
willing to do something, but I don't want nobody getting hurt."
Later, several protesters gathered outside of Ferguson 's police
station, where they blocked South
Florissant Avenue . Officers warned the crowd not
to impede traffic, and the demonstrators moved to the sidewalk before
eventually spilling back into the street. Two people were arrested for unlawful
assembly, said St. Louis
County Police spokesman Brian Schellman.
Several businesses in Ferguson
and Clayton have boarded up their windows, and some residents admitted to
feeling anxious.
Jamie Freeman of Ferguson ,
38, a registered nurse and mother of four, said she was especially concerned
since her 20-year-old son lives in the neighborhood where Brown was shot.
"I just hope it stays peaceful," Freeman said of
protests that will follow the grand jury decision. "We all have human
emotions, but there's a way to do things, and violence, you can't get peace
from violence."
The FBI has sent nearly 100 additional agents to Ferguson to help law enforcement agencies, according to a U.S. official
who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to
discuss the FBI plans.
But things were calm during the day on Saturday. Brown's
father, Michael Brown Sr., joined a church group in passing out free turkeys to
needy residents in the area where his son was shot. A day earlier, a video of
Brown Sr. was released urging peace, regardless of how the announcement goes.
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