On August 9 during a fatal shooting, 28-year-old Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson killed an 18-year-old unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. A killing charge was submitted against that police officer. But lately, a grand jury has dismissed the case by declaring that Wilson will not be charged for killing that teenager in that fatal shooting.
Since the death of Brown, the entire situation was untamed. As a killing charge was submitted against the police officer Wilson, Brown’s family as well as general people had been expecting that Wilson will be found guilty and hence, he will be punished.
For more than past three months, the grand jury — made up of seven men and five women, nine white and three black — heard evidence into the shooting. The jury met 25 times and heard from 60 witnesses. They considered charges ranging from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.
Some witnesses said, “Mr. Brown had his hands in the air and was not moving toward the officer when he was shot.” And some other witnesses said, “Mr. Brown did not raise his hands at all or that he raised them briefly and then dropped them and then turned toward Officer Wilson, who then fired several rounds.”
In a criminal trial, jurors must decide whether a crime has been committed beyond a reasonable doubt. But here, those jurors needed only to feel there was probable cause that Wilson had committed a crime.
However, after hearing all the eyewitnesses and checking all the evidences, the jury felt that police officer Darren Wilson was not guilty, though he had killed the 18-year-old unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. According to the jury, the killing was just an “accident” and Brown’s death was a “tragedy.”
After hearing the verdict, Brown’s family said in a statement, “We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions.”
On the other hand, such verdict made some people very much angry. They inflamed few police cars and a half-dozen buildings. Protestors also blocked Interstate 44, causing a miles-long back-up of traffic. Not only that, protesters also gathered in front of the White House as well as in major cities from coast to coast, with sporadic reports of police cars being attacked.
Source: Washington Post
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