Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said he believes Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson should be "commended" for fatally shooting Michael Brown, the black unarmed teenager, last August,
Politico reported.
"A man committed a robbery, attempted to assault a police officer, and the police officer, to save his life, shot him," Giuliani told Fox News on Thursday, according to Politico. "The police officer did his duty. The police officer should be commended for what he did. He did exactly what you should do."
A grand jury cleared Wilson last fall of all charges.
Last week, the
Justice Department last week announced that it was not going to prosecute Wilson, but it did fault Ferguson for widespread racial bias in city government and law enforcement.
The report noted that while 67 percent of the city's population is black, blacks are the subject of 85 percent of vehicle stops and 93 percent of arrests.
Federal officials concluded that there was no evidence to doubt Wilson's testimony that he feared for his safety when he shot Brown. They also said that there was no reliable evidence to conclude that Brown had his hands up when he was shot.
Giuliani also said during his interview that he believed that Ferguson had been consumed by an "atmosphere of unbalance" since Brown was shot last August.
He blamed the Obama administration for perpetuating the atmosphere, and specifically mentioned the Justice Department's negative report about the Ferguson Police Department as adding to the tension.
Giuliani said he believed that the report led directly to the shooting early Thursday of
two police officers in Ferguson. Both are
expected to recover from their wounds.