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Michael Brown shooting: Attorney General Eric Holder heads to Ferguson, Missouri
Protestors in Ferguson, Missouri. PHOTO/Charlie Riedel/AP
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met with community members in Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday and vowed a thorough civil rights probe into the fatal police shooting of an unarmed African American teenager that has set off 12 nights of racially charged protests.
Holder, spoke in person with students and then community leaders at a community college during a visit to Ferguson for a briefing on a Justice Department investigation into the August 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
He later met privately with Brown’s parents at the St. Louis U.S. Attorney’s Office, but no details of that session were immediately available.
Also on Wednesday, a grand jury investigating the fatal shooting began hearing evidence in the case, though protesters stepped up their demands that the local criminal inquiry be turned over to a special prosecutor.
Before a briefing at local FBI headquarters, Holder said the thrust of his department’s probe differed from the investigation conducted by local authorities. “We are looking for violations of federal, criminal civil rights statutes,” he said.
The Justice Department is seeking specifically to determine whether federal prosecutors can bring criminal charges against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown, for violating Brown’s civil rights by use of excessive force.
His visit came hours after dozens of protesters were arrested in the latest street disturbances. Many of the protests have been peaceful, but others, especially smaller ones late at night, have been punctuated by looting, vandalism and clashes between demonstrators and police.
