A grand jury's decision against indicting the police officer who killed Ferguson teenager Michael Brown "absolutely shocked" the boy's mother, an attorney for the family said Tuesday on TODAY.
“She believed that he would at least be charged with something,” said Benjamin Crump, speaking on behalf of Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden. “She really had faith that the system would work for her child so she was profoundly disappointed as only a mother could be.”
On Monday, a grand jury in St. Louis County decided against indicting Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Michael Brown last August. The decision sparked rioting immediately after it was announced, similar to the violence that erupted last summer shortly after the shooting.
See just-released photos of officer Darren Wilson from night of shooting
Crump told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie that while Brown’s mother was “overcome with emotion” by the decision, the teen’s father also was upset by both the lack of indictment and the violence that broke out.
“He was very disappointed (by) the images that he saw because he had made such a passionate plea for peace,” Crump said about Michael Brown Sr. “There’s no solution to be violent when you’re facing issues of violence.
Crump, a civil rights attorney, said he was shocked by the way St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch handled the case and indicated it may have been a result of a larger issue at hand.
“The system needs to be indicted. This system is completely unfair to the citizens, especially to African American and minority citizens when you have police involved shootings,” he said. “This system, over and over again, exonerates police officers for killing young people of color.”