A security guard puts up police tape outside of the Buzz Westfall Justice Center where a St. Louis County grand jury is considering whether or not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown yesterday in Clayton, Missouri.
Agencies
After a fourth straight night of low-level protests in Ferguson, Missouri, anxious residents still did not know yesterday when a grand jury will return a decision on whether to charge a white policeman who shot an unarmed black teen to death this summer.
It appeared that the St. Louis suburb, which has become a flashpoint for US race relations since Officer Darren Wilson killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9, will have to wait until at least today and perhaps longer for an announcement.
The 12-member grand jury adjourned and will not resume meeting behind closed doors until today, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing an unidentified St. Louis County official. Reuters could not confirm that report.
Media reports had suggested the panel would have a decision by this weekend. There have been nightly rallies and a high-profile law enforcement presence.
A lawyer for Brown’s family criticised how prosecutors have handled the grand jury process, which has dragged on longer than many expected.
The attorney, Benjamin Crump, told ABC’s This Week programme yesterday it was the first time in his 20 years of practising law that a prosecutor had not recommended charges to a grand jury hearing a case.
“Why you can’t come in and recommend charges right now based on the probable cause?” Crump said, a reference to witnesses who said Brown had his hands up in the air, signalling surrender, when the officer shot him. Wilson’s supporters say he shot Brown in self-defence.
St. Louis County prosecutors have said the grand jury’s decision will be announced at a news conference, but the date, time and location remain unknown. Crump said he expected to get about six hours notice before an announcement.
Steady rain put a dampener on Saturday night’s demonstrations in Ferguson. About 40 protesters, mostly teenagers, strode up and down a main street, waving upside-down US flags and home-made placards and chanting, “We’re young, we’re strong, we’re marching all night long.”
Convoys of law enforcement vehicles patrolled after dark, and for a fourth straight night other protesters gathered outside police headquarters while a helicopter with a spotlight buzzed overhead.
As on previous evenings, demonstrators briefly blocked the road and there were at least two arrests: an activist from Chicago who has been detained three times since Wednesday, and a man identified as a Washington, DC-based reporter.
St. Louis, the mostly black suburb of 21,000 with an overwhelmingly white police force and town government, has been on edge for several days in anticipation of the jury’s decision.
Metal interlocking fences and orange plastic barricades sealed off the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, another suburb of the city of St. Louis and where the grand jury has been meeting, with a handful of uniformed officers on duty outside.
A police officer unfurled yellow tape saying, “St Louis Police Lines” and “Do Not Cross” around the barricades, watched by a clutch of journalists in the rain.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and called in National Guard troops to back up police, which protesters have criticised as heavy-handed.
Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, told demonstrators on Saturday night they should remain peaceful whatever the grand jury decides.