The death of Michael Brown, the unarmed St. Louis teenager who was reportedly shot by a police officer during a street altercation over the weekend, has ignited racial tensions of near-Trayvon Martin proportions in his hometown Missouri suburb.
Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, and another person were walking down a street in the predominantly black neighborhood of Ferguson on Saturday when they were
met by a police officer, according to CBS News.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said one of the men pushed the officer back into his squad car before a struggle ensued. One shot from the officer's gun reportedly went off in the cop car before the fight spilled out onto the street.
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At that point, multiple shots were fired and Brown was killed.
"[The officer] shot again and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air," said Dorian Johnson, a friend of Brown's who was
identified by KMOV.com as the person who was with him at the time of the incident. "He started to get down and the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots."
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles issued a statement about Brown's death after hundreds of people gathered in protest over the weekend.
"We don't know what happened and there are lots of conflicting stories," Knowles said. "Unfortunately there will have to be some time taken to understand what happened. Hopefully we will get to an understanding and justice will be served."
John Gaskin, of the St. Louis County NAACP, has called on the FBI to get involved.
"With the recent events of a young man killed by the police in New York City and with Trayvon Martin and with all the other African-American young men that have been killed by police officers . . . this is a dire concern to the NAACP, especially our local organization," he said.
"Anytime you have this type of event that's taken place, emotions are going to run high. But for 600 people to gather around an area to see where a man is lying in the street, that means something happened that should have not happened."
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