On Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, the shooting of Michael Brown occurred. It took place in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Brown was an 18 year-old black man, who was tragically shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a 28 year-old white Ferguson police officer.
This series of events resulted in resilient protests and civil unrest. Respectable attention from the U.S. and abroad has sparked a debate about the relationship between law enforcement, African Americans and the police officer’s use of force. Brown and his friend were walking down the middle of the street after robbing a convenience store when Wilson drove by and asked them to move on to the sidewalk.
Arguments between Wilson and Brown occurred through the window of the police car, until Wilson’s gun was fired. Brown and his friend ran in two different directions.
The gun was fired several more times resulting in a total of 12 gunshots. Witness reports are different to whether Brown had his hands raised or whether he was moving towards Wilson when the final shot was fired.
The grand jury chose not to indict Wilson, though speculation still occurs about the verdict.
Before this shooting took place brown had stolen a box of cigarillos from a local convenient store and used harmful force against the store clerk. The store clerk called it in to the dispatcher and gave a description of brown and his friend to the police. After officer Wilson drove passed them he then realized that there description matched the one of the robber of the convenient store, which is when he then put his car in reverse and backed up to meet the two boys. Wilson told the boys to come here and brown replied with “what the ** are you gonna do?”