Live Updates From Ferguson: After the Grand Jury's Decision: More Coverage (2024)

After the Grand Jury’s Decision: More Coverage |

Follow developments in the wake of a grand jury’s decision in the Michael Brown shooting here.

A Quiet Wedding for Darren Wilson

FERGUSON, Mo. — Darren Wilson, the officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in August, has been out of public sight ever since. Yet last month, he stepped into a St. Louis County office building, gave his name and applied for a marriage license.

Several days later, Officer Wilson married Barbara Spradling, a fellow officer in the Ferguson Police Department, public records show.

The couple obtained their marriage license in Clayton, Mo., outside St. Louis, in the recorder of deeds office on the fourth floor of the Lawrence K. Roos administrative building, steps away from the courthouse where the grand jury has been meeting.

While security guards question people going in and out of the building, the deeds office itself is a blandly bureaucratic place where clerks sit in open cubicles. A clerk at the marriage license desk said on Monday that she was surprised that Officer Wilson went there, as opposed to another county or state — possibly Las Vegas, she said — where he could have filled out paperwork with a greater guarantee of privacy.

Records show that Officer Wilson, 28, and Officer Spradling, 37, were married on Oct. 24. One of the two witnesses at the ceremony was Greg Kloeppel, one of Officer Wilson’s lawyers. Christopher B. Graville, a municipal judge in Oakland, Mo., performed the ceremony.

Officer Wilson has been on paid administrative leave from the police department since August, when he fatally shot Mr. Brown on a Ferguson street, setting off months of angry demonstrations. A grand jury is currently meeting to determine whether there is probable cause that Officer Wilson committed a crime when he killed Mr. Brown. A decision from the grand jury is expected any day.

Both Officer Wilson and Officer Spradling were previously married, public records indicate. His divorce was finalized on Nov. 10, 2013.

Officer Wilson and Officer Spradling own a home together on Manda Lane in Crestwood, Mo., a St. Louis suburb about a half-hour drive from Ferguson.

They have scarcely been seen there since Mr. Brown was killed on Aug. 9. Neighbors said that within a few days of the shooting, Officer Wilson and Officer Spradling abruptly left their home.

Officer Spradling received a medal of valor award in 2012 for her work as a police officer. Officer Wilson received a commendation earlier this year for his arrest of a suspect in a drug case.

Parents Find Themselves in the Limelight

FERGUSON, Mo. — They have stood on stage at the BET Hip Hop Awards, met with United Nations officials in Geneva and spoken with supporters at the spot where their son was shot dead.

It has been a whirlwind three months for Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., the parents of Michael Brown Jr., the 18-year-old who was fatally shot in August by Officer Darren Wilson. While grieving for their son, they are also asking for justice and pushing for systemic change, said one of their lawyers, Benjamin L. Crump.

Mr. Brown, who was black, has become a rallying point for broader social change among advocates, who say his killing by a white police officer has exposed serious problems of racial inequality in the United States.

In quiet moments, Mr. Crump said, the parents struggle with their emotions.

“It’s a lot of crying,” Mr. Crump said Sunday. “It’s a lot of trying to think back to happier times. Of course, they’re coming into the first holiday without him, so that’s going to be challenging.”

Adding to the stress, Mr. Crump said, was the wait for a grand jury decision on whether to indict Officer Wilson. A decision is expected soon.

“They’re on pins and needles,” Mr. Crump said. “Lesley is trying to have the faith. She says she has to believe that she’ll get justice for her child because that’s all she has left and it’s really taken a toll on her.”

Indeed, Ms. McSpadden, speaking with reporters near a memorial where her son was shot, said over the weekend: “It’s in God’s hands. All I see is an indictment.”

The elder Mr. Brown has been focusing on things that could lead to change, Mr. Crump said. He handed out turkeys to needy families, and he has filmed a public service announcement urging calm once the grand jury decision is announced. The parents have been pushing for what supporters have called the Michael Brown Law, which would require officers to wear body cameras.

Mr. Brown “is trying to be more involved in trying to say, ‘Let’s do stuff; let’s try to be proactive in action,’ ” Mr. Crump said. “He’s trying to be strong as best he can.”

The parents appreciated that protesters were using their son’s death to push for broader change, Mr. Crump said. “You don’t want them just to be marching to make noise,” he said. “You want them to be exercising their First Amendment Constitutional rights to make change. Real, systematic, institutional change.”

Release of Evidence Used by Grand Jury Is Uncertain

A St. Louis County circuit court judge had not yet agreed to the release of records from grand jury proceedings in the Darren Wilson case, a court official said in a statement on Sunday, an indication that there is no guarantee that the public will receive access to transcripts and recordings detailing what has happened in the grand jury room.

The grand jury, which has been meeting since Aug. 20 to consider whether there is probable cause that Officer Wilson committed a crime when he fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, has not completed its work in the case. The jury could make a decision in the next several days.

Robert P. McCulloch, the county prosecutor, has said that if Officer Wilson is not indicted, he would take the unusual step of asking a judge to release recordings and transcripts of the grand jury proceedings, which typically remain secret.

Paul Fox, the director of judicial administration for the St. Louis County circuit court, responded to an article in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch stating that Judge Carolyn C. Whittington has already agreed to grant the request.

Judge Whittington, Mr. Fox said in a statement, has “made no such agreement.”

If a grand jury does not indict Officer Wilson for a crime, the judge expects to receive requests for the court records, Mr. Fox said.

“Some of those requests will require the court to analyze the need for maintaining secrecy of the records with the need for public disclosure of the records,” he said. “The court has done no such analysis.”

He added, “The court awaits the decision of the grand jury. The court will thereafter be guided by the law in its response to requests for grand jury records.”

Brown Family’s Lawyer Criticizes Process

FERGUSON, Mo. — Benjamin Crump, a lawyer representing the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager killed by a white police officer in August, again called the grand jury process on the review of the shooting “completely unfair” in an interview on Sunday with ABC News.

Mr. Crump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he had not yet received word of a decision by the grand jury, which did not meet on Saturday and is not expected to meet again until Monday, on whether to charge Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Mr. Brown. But the lawyer said that the Brown family expected at least some notice before a public announcement.

In the interview, Mr. Crump reiterated his belief that the St. Louis County prosecutor should charge Officer Wilson and proceed to a trial, rather than leave the decision on charges to the grand jurors, who have been meeting in secret for months and are widely thought to be very close to a decision.

“I just think this process is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my 20 years of practice,” Mr. Crump told ABC. “We don’t think it’s fair.”

Mr. Crump’s statements came after another night of peaceful but at times tense protest in Ferguson. Demonstrators blocked traffic for a time Saturday night on two major roads in the St. Louis suburb, leading to two arrests. Gerald Yingst, 21, of Harrisburg, Pa., and David Rodriguez, 26, of Oak Lawn, Ill., were arrested after being accused of unlawful assembly, the St. Louis County Police Department said.

Mr. Yingst, who goes by the name Trey, is a journalist for news2share.com. In a Sunday morning Twitter post, he wrote that he had been released from jail “after being arrested for exercising my 1st amendment rights on a public sidewalk.”

The authorities said Mr. Yingst did not obey commands to move.

Barriers Set Up Around St. Louis County Police Headquarters

CLAYTON, Mo. — Officials here set up barriers around the county Police Headquarters on Saturday and prepared to restrict traffic near the courthouse where grand jurors have been deliberating, part of the St. Louis area’s continued preparations for unrest.

City officials in Clayton, the St. Louis County seat, said they did not know exactly when the grand jury decision would be announced, but that they anticipated it would be “relatively soon.” Protesters have mentioned several locations in Clayton as potential demonstration sites.

Even as police closed parking spaces, Saturday was mostly quiet in Clayton, a predominately white suburb about 10 miles from where Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson. Several joggers made their way past cable news reporters filming segments on the sidewalk across from the courthouse.

In a statement posted Saturday on the city website, officials offered no timeline on how long the detours near the courthouse might remain.

“We will keep these traffic restrictions in place as long as they seem prudent,” the statement said, “and will keep you apprised of further developments.”

Unlawful Assembly Arrests in Ferguson

Three people were charged with unlawful assembly overnight in protests in Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement authorities said early Saturday, as the St. Louis region awaits a grand jury’s decision on whether to indict a white police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager.

Since the August shooting, protests have gone on nearly nightly in Ferguson, and the authorities said that Friday night’s group of demonstrators swelled to about 160 people.

At various points, protesters blocked traffic outside the Ferguson Police Department and were told to clear the street. One group moved to an area along West Florissant Avenue, not far from where the shooting took place, and blocked traffic there. During that demonstration, a driver lost control and crashed a vehicle into a light pole, Brian Schellman, a spokesman for the St. Louis County police, said. Later, the group went back to the street near police department, where three people were arrested for refusing to move out of the street.

The three arrested, the authorities said, were: Kenny Thomas, 55, of St. Louis; David Rodriguez, 26, of Oak Lawn, Ill., and William Morales, 23, of Granite City, Ill.

Schools Are Closed in Anticipation of Unrest

Updated, 6:23 p.m. | FERGUSON, Mo. – Eight schools in one district in the Ferguson area will be closed on Monday and Tuesday in anticipation of a grand jury decision on whether to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in August.

Officials with the Jennings School District said Friday that they decided to close schools because of “potential Ferguson unrest.” The district, made up of 2,600 students, had already planned to be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“We believe that we can always make up a day in the interest of safety,” the Jennings superintendent, Tiffany Anderson, said in a statement. “Extending the Thanksgiving break seems like the most logical thing to do at this time.”

Ms. Anderson said in an interview that the decision to close schools next week did not stem from any discussions she had with law enforcement officials. “We haven’t heard anything new,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of anxiety from adults and students wrapped around all of this, and so there was a bit of relief in just knowing the next steps, that we will be out.”

Jennings is one of a handful of school districts that serve the city of Ferguson. Other districts have decided to remain open on Monday and Tuesday, saying it was premature to close schools when it was not known when the grand jury’s decision will be announced. The grand jury is weighing whether to charge the Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, in the shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9.

“As of right now, there’s been no change in our schedule,” said Jana Shortt, a spokeswoman for the Ferguson-Florissant School District, which will be open on Monday and Tuesday. “It’s business as usual until we receive something from the prosecutor’s office, some word of an announcement.”

In October, several superintendents in the area had asked the St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, to avoid announcing the grand jury’s decision during the school day, citing concerns about the reaction affecting travel routes to and from school. The superintendents told Mr. McCulloch in a letter that they would prefer the announcement to be made on a Sunday. “What they have said is that they’ll definitely take it into consideration,” said Ms. Shortt, with the Ferguson-Florissant district, whose interim superintendent signed the letter. “We don’t have any promises that we’re going to get advance notice.”

In Clayton, the affluent county seat where Mr. McCulloch’s office is, public schools will be open on Monday and Tuesday. The Clayton district’s administrative offices, as well as an elementary school and a middle school, are three blocks from the county justice center, where the grand jury has been meeting.

“We’re watching this very closely,” Chris Tennill, a spokesman for the Clayton district, said. “We’re just waiting for official notice.”

Police Agree to Some of Protesters’ Rules of Engagement

CLAYTON, Mo. — The authorities will abide by many of the rules of engagement proposed by demonstrators once the grand jury decision is announced regarding the shooting death of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, officials said Friday.

But law enforcement’s point-by-point response to the 19 suggested rules included some instances where the unified police command disagreed with protesters’ requests.

The police, for instance, agreed that the government should not limit cellphone or Internet access and that officers would treat “protesters as citizens and not ‘enemy combatants.’” Law enforcement officials said no to a request to provide 48 hours’ notice of the grand jury announcement, saying that was not their choice to make, and offered a nuanced agreement to demands to limit the use of riot gear and to not stop reporters or legal observers.

Friday’s announcement came after weeks of discussions between some protesters and leaders of the unified command, which includes the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the city and county police in St. Louis. Officials stressed that the talks were not negotiations, but rather discussions where each side could explain their concerns.

Mayor Francis G. Slay of St. Louis, who spoke with other leaders at a news conference, said the police had been trained to allow protesters to exercise their rights and that “our goal, our job and our prayer is that everyone goes home safe.”

“If protesters are nonviolent, police will not be aggressive,” Mr. Slay said. “When demonstrators are being civilly disobedient, they will in most cases be given a chance to adhere to the law before being arrested. And then, if necessary, they will be arrested in a nonviolent manner.”

A Symbolic Protest at the Old Courthouse

ST LOUIS — At noon on Friday a handful of people performed a mock lynching across the street from the Old Courthouse here as a silent protest of the killings of Michael Brown, who was killed in August by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., and Vonderrit D. Myers Jr., who was killed in October by an off-duty police officer in St. Louis. It was a symbolic location. In 1847, a slave named Dred Scott came to the Old Courthouse to sue for his freedom.

A rapper from St. Louis, T-Dubb-O, was one of three protesters who lay beneath a crab apple tree with hands and ankles bound and a white nylon noose around their necks.

“We did this to stand in solidarity with all the people we’ve lost to murders by law enforcement,” the rapper said. “The Michael Brown situation, he was left in the middle of the street for four and a half hours. To us that was a modern-day lynching, his body left on display as a reminder for who’s in power.”

After about half an hour, the performers, shivering from the cold wind, stood up and removed their ropes and chains.