Barricades surrounded the building where a grand jury has been considering whether to indict the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, though the decision seemed unlikely over the weekend.
Tension has been mounting in the St. Louis area in recent days, with many speculating that the grand jury’s decision would be announced on Sunday.
Downtown STL, a civic group that promotes downtown businesses, told members in an email on Saturday that the grand jury will reconvene on Monday to continue deliberating whether charges are warranted against Officer Darren Wilson in the August 9, 2014 fatal shooting.
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The email did not explain how the group knew the information, and a spokeswoman declined comment. Ed Magee, a spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch, didn’t respond to several messages on Saturday.
The Brown family’s attorney, Ben Crump, said on Saturday that he hadn’t heard a decision had been reached and that prosecutors had promised to tell him when that happened.
Mr. Wilson is white and Brown, who was unarmed, was African-American. His body lay in the street for hours after the shooting. Some of the many demonstrations in the months since Brown’s death have been violent.
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On Saturday, authorities set up barricades around the justice centre where the grand jury has been meeting. Grand juries, composed of regular citizens, determine only whether probable cause exists to indict a suspect. If the jury indicts Mr. Wilson, a separate trial will be seated to decide whether to convict or acquit him.
Several dozen protesters marched in Ferguson on Saturday evening, praying, playing music and chanting slogans including “No justice, no peace.” Cars stopped and drivers honked, slowing traffic.
Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, spoke to protesters and urged people to be careful.
“Don’t agitate them, and don’t let them agitate,” she said. “I don’t want nobody getting hurt.”
Several businesses have put boards on their windows. Residents were on edge. Two-thirds of Ferguson’s residents are black but the police force is almost entirely white.
The FBI has sent nearly 100 additional agents to Ferguson to help law enforcement agencies, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the FBI plans.
Police departments from Los Angeles and Boston have made preparations for protests in anticipation of the grand jury’s decision.