FBI Opens Probe After Police Shooting of Black US Teen
The FBI opened a civil rights investigation on Monday after police shot an
unarmed black teenager in Missouri and triggered a night of rioting and
inflamed racial tension.
Mayor James Knowles of the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson promised a thorough
and impartial investigation by county officials into Saturday's death of
aspiring college student Michael Brown, 18.
"The only thing I can tell my community now is to remain calm," said Knowles
on CNN television. "I understand the rage and anger of people, but this is not
constructive."
St. Louis County police said two officers were injured overnight and 32 people
arrested for theft, assault or burglary in Ferguson, home to 21,000 people,
two-thirds of them African-American.
Local schools cancelled what would have been their first day back after
summer.
Protesters wielding placards returned to the streets Monday where they engaged
in a stand-off with a line of police. No incidents were reported.
The St. Louis office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking
into possible civil rights violations in Brown's death, alongside a separate
probe undertaken by St. Louis County Police, local media reported.
By law, the FBI is tasked with enforcing federal civil rights legislation and
investigating suspected cases of race-based abuses by public officials.
Social media exploded Monday with accusations that Brown had been "murdered"
at the hands of Ferguson's overwhelmingly white police department, alongside
condemnation of Sunday night's outburst of looting.
His death stirred comparisons to the February 2012 fatal shooting of unarmed
teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida by pistol-toting neighborhood watch
volunteer George Zimmerman, who claimed he acted in self-defense. He went on
to be acquitted of murder.
It also renewed a debate about race and law enforcement, a month after the
death of an asthmatic African-American father of five who was subjected to a
"choke hold" by police on a New York sidewalk in full view of passers-by.
Local media in St. Louis said at least a dozen businesses were targeted in
Sunday's violence, including a gas station that was looted and set on fire.
The violence broke out after large crowds of mostly African-American
protesters gathered Sunday for a vigil at the spot where Brown -- who was to
start classes at a vocational college on Monday -- had been shot.
Details of Brown's death differed, however.
A witness identified as Dorian Johnson told KMOV News 4 that he had been
walking with Brown when a police officer confronted them and drew his weapon.
The officer shot Brown, who "turned around and put his hands in the air,"
Johnson said. "He started to get down and the officer still approached with
his weapon drawn and fired several more shots."
But St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told a news conference Sunday
that Brown was killed after physically assaulting a police officer and
struggling to get his weapon.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the incident brought to light a lingering
tension between the mostly white local police force and the suburb's
African-American community, which has grown in the past decade.
"The death of yet another African-American at the hands of those sworn to
protect and serve the community where he lived is heartbreaking," said Cornell
Williams Brooks of the NAACP civil rights organization.
Brown's grief-stricken mother, Lesley McSpadden, told KMOV TV her son had just
graduated from high school.
"Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate?
You know how many black men graduate? Not many," she said.
"Because you bring them down to this type of level, where they feel like they
don't got nothing to live for anyway."
Source: AFP
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