Officer faces grand jury over Ferguson shooting

WASHINGTON DC, USA – The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in Missouri, sparking days of unrest, has appeared before a grand jury, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Thursday, September 19.

Quoting “a source with knowledge of the investigation,” the newspaper said Darren Wilson testified for almost 4 hours Tuesday about the August 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Wilson had previously spoken with St. Louis County investigators, and once with federal investigators, according to the source, who added that Wilson was “cooperative” with the grand jury.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report from the office of St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch, which oversees the grand jury’s work.

Wilson has been on administrative leave and out of public view since the midday shooting that triggered violent protests in Ferguson.

The incident renewed a national debate about race and law enforcement in the United States, and prompted the federal justice department to launch a civil rights investigation. (READ: US announces probe into Ferguson police)

Police claim Brown was shot after a struggle with Wilson, less than a half-hour after the college-bound youth allegedly stole a box of cigars from a convenience store.

But some witnesses in Ferguson – a suburb of 21,000 with an African-American majority and an overwhelmingly white police department and town council – say Brown had put his hands up to surrender when he was shot at least 6 times.

Many local residents want the grand jury, which meets behind closed doors, to indict Wilson for murder.

They also want McCulloch replaced by a special prosecutor, arguing that he has rarely pursued cases of alleged police wrongdoing in his two decades in office. – Rappler.com