Jihadin wrote:
The Defense lawyer will tear up the eye witnesses accounts more likely being they conflict with each other

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Actually, it makes sense. Although eyewitnesses are pretty unreliable, people will still believe them more than a person who has no witnesses to back them up.

 whembly wrote:
Update:

There's still a sizable "protest crowd" outside of the Ferguson PD these days.
Here's some local news over that weekend...

I watched an interview on ksdk with St. Louis' County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch and he provided some updates on the whole process:

The decision won't likely happen till mid-November

McCulloch is not directly dealing with the Grand Jury... the oncall prosecuting attorney at the time is conducting the Grand Jury investigation

The Grand Jury component is secret, but the composition (gender, race, location, wealth) reflects the St. Louis population

The evidence is staggering and they're taking extra-special attention to interviewing potential witnesses

They're reviewing all possible indictments (1st degree murder, 2nd degree, homicide, etc...)

Officer Wilson actually testified in front of the Grand Jury, which is unusal, but not unheard of for what it's worth.

Grand jury considering the Ferguson shooting is being investigated for misconduct

The St. Louis County prosecutor’s office is investigating an accusation of misconduct on the grand jury that is hearing the case against the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Ed Magee, the spokesman for county prosecutor Robert McCulloch, said they received the information from a “Twitter user” Wednesday morning.

“We are looking into the matter,” he said.

An account of possible jury misconduct surfaced Wednesday morning on Twitter, when several users sent messages about one juror who may have discussed evidence in the case with a friend.

In one of those messages, a person tweeted that they are friends with a member of the jury who doesn’t believe there is enough evidence to warrant an arrest of the officer, Darren Wilson.

The same person who tweeted about being friends with a member of the jury has also tweeted messages of support for Wilson.

Magee confirmed that information on the Twitter user and feed came from an activist, Shaun King.

Within seconds of posting this, her friends told her to delete it and she did. It was screenshotted first. pic.twitter.com/b6kTf9p40h

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 1, 2014

The jury has been weighing evidence on the case since Aug. 20, within days of the Aug. 9 shooting. McCulloch told The Washington Post last week that both the FBI and county police’s investigations into the shooting are “pretty much done.” He also said that jurors should be done hearing all the evidence by later this month, but they could meet through mid-November.

Grand jury proceedings are confidential and if there has been a breach, the prosecutor’s office may have to start over with a newly empaneled group.

Meanwhile, Ferguson is grappling with continuing protests amid the wait over whether Wilson will face charges.

The attorney for Brown’s family, Ben Crump, said the potential breach must be fully investigated.

“If this allegation is true and there is a member of the grand jury who is discussing the case with a Darren Wilson supporters the appropriate thing for the prosecutor to do is impanel a new grand jury,” Crump said in an interview Wednesday night. “If this person is discussing the case outside of the grand jury it is wholly inappropriate. It’s an issue of fairness for Michael Brown’s family.”

Reached on Wednesday evening, King told The Post that the potential link was further evidence that the current legal proceedings may be flawed.

“At a time where so many people in Ferguson already don’t believe that Prosecutor Bob McCulloch will take this case seriously, this potential leak is a disaster,” King said. “If it’s found to be true and the Grand Jury has to be dismantled, McCulloch should be taken off of the case immediately and replaced with a special prosecutor.”

@thesusannichols
I know someone sitting on the grnad jury of this case There isn't enough at this point to warrant an arrest. #Ferguson

squidhills wrote:
There's a very real chance that the "I know somebody on the Grand Jury" tweet is just plain old bullgak. We've all met the guy who knows nothing and will claim that he has firsthand or secondhand knowledge of a thing to make his assinine claims seem more authoritative. I'm hoping it's something along those lines, here.

I see this tweet as being from a series of tweets in support of Wilson, made by Wilson supporters, and one guy just decided "feth it, I'll say I know somebody on the jury". I don't think anybody knows anybody.

On the other hand, people are pretty stupid. So after being told not to talk to anyone about the case, I'm sure it's possible there was one juror stupid enough to talk about it with someone. I just hope that's not the case.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
The same Twitter account posted information about the plastic Thunderhawk that's due out next year (perpetually!). His buddy has seen it!

 whembly wrote:
Looks like the decision will be made early/mid November.

That's actually kinda smart, as our weather can get gnarly at that time.

@Cardinals vs. #Ferguson protesters pic.twitter.com/H3PnbTYnzS

— Mariah Randi Stewart (@MzzzMariah) October 7, 2014

The “No Justice, No Baseball” protesters stood outside Busch Stadium near Ballpark Village and chanted and yelled at the baseball fans.

 daedalus wrote:
Wow. I can't believe they did it.

 Hordini wrote:

Which part can't you believe?

 daedalus wrote:

 Hordini wrote:

Which part can't you believe?

Potentially interfere in any way with the one thing people in STL almost universally consider holy ground.

 daedalus wrote:
Well, I mean, I don't really have any means of proving that, one way or the other. It's possible they're not, I suppose. I'm not sure I'd consider that the default hypothesis though.

“USA… Feth ‘em!… USA!… Feth ‘em!”

 daedalus wrote:
Well, I mean, I don't really have any means of proving that, one way or the other. It's possible they're not, I suppose. I'm not sure I'd consider that the default hypothesis though.

 Frazzled wrote:

During the riots part, over 95% of arrests were from out of towners. A lot from illinois.

 Frazzled wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
Well, I mean, I don't really have any means of proving that, one way or the other. It's possible they're not, I suppose. I'm not sure I'd consider that the default hypothesis though.

During the riots part, over 95% of arrests were from out of towners. A lot from illinois. Even one from Austin that was arrested at least twice.

ST. LOUIS • Another police-involved fatal shooting of a teenager, this time in south St. Louis not far from the Missouri Botanical Garden, led to hours of protests overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning as an angry crowd gathered quickly when news spread across social media.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the officer was off-duty, working a secondary job for a private security company, when he chased and fatally shot an 18-year-old male Wednesday night who came at him aggressively in a gangway.

The teen had a gun and fired at least three shots at the officer, who returned fire, the chief said. The teenager attempted to fire more but his gun jammed, Dotson said.

The officer was unhurt. The officer fired 17 times, Dotson said. It is unclear how many times the teenager was struck.

Police said they recovered a 9mm Ruger.

Relatives of the dead teen who came to the scene identified him as Vonderrit Myers Jr., 18. They disputed the police version. They say he didn't have a weapon.

Teyonna Myers, 23, of Florissant, said Myers was her cousin.

“He was unarmed,” Teyonna Myers said. “He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It’s like Michael Brown all over again.”

The crowd that converged on the scene through the night numbered about 300 at its peak. Random gunshots fired by someone near Shaw caused many to scatter. At least two rounds of gunshots were heard near the scene. Several police cars were damaged by protesters kicking in the vehicles' windows or tail lights.

Dotson, who came to the scene and gave an update to reporters after midnight, said the officer had been in a car when he saw three males near Shaw Boulevard and Klemm Street at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. One of the males started to run away but stopped. The officer did a U-turn and then all three ran, in the 4100 block of Shaw Boulevard. The officer drove through streets following them, and then he got out and chased them on foot.

Dotson said a physical confrontation escalated into gunfire. This is how Dotson described the confrontation:

At one point the officer got out of his car and followed the suspect through a gangway. "When the officer went through the gangway, he saw the three gentlemen had come back together," Dotson said. "One of the gentleman started to approach the officer in an aggressive manner. The officer was giving verbal commands, telling them to stop, telling them how to surrender, telling them that they were under arrest. The suspect continued to come towards the officer until they got into a physical altercation. The suspect and the officer were hands on with each other. At that time, the suspect's gray hooded sweatshirt comes off and the suspect starts to run up a hill at the address on Shaw."

The officer clearly saw the suspect had a gun, Dotson said.

The officer said he "wanted to be certain that it was a gun and did not fire at that point. The suspect pointed the gun at the officer and fired at least three rounds at the police officer. We believe this to be true because there are three projectiles that we recovered with trajectories going towards the officer, down the hill, and one piece of ballistic evidence located behind the officer. At that point, the officer returned fire. As the officer moved towards the suspect, the suspect continued to pull the trigger on his gun."

That is when the teen's gun jammed, Dotson said.

Dotson did not identify the 18-year-old but said he "was no stranger to law enforcement."

Myers was scheduled to stand trial in November for unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. According to court documents, the incident happened June 27 in St. Louis. Myers was a passenger in a car involved in a high-speed car chase. The car crashed in the 1100 block of South Grand Boulevard. Myers got out of the car, and a police officer yelled at him to stop. Instead, Myers ran off and tossed a gun into a sewage drain. Police caught him nearby. Police recovered the gun, a loaded .380-caliber pistol.

In early July, Myers was released on bail after posting $1,000 cash bond. His bail originally was set at $30,000 but was dropped to $10,000 after a judge agreed it was excessive. She allowed Myers to post 10 percent of that in cash. As a condition of bail, Myers was supposed to be under house arrest and wear an electronic ankle monitor.

A private monitoring firm, Eastern Missouri Alternative Sentencing Services, Inc., was supposed to monitor Myers' movements and contact the court if he violated the rules. Nothing in the court file indicates any violations.

Myers' trial was set for Nov. 17.

The chief said he is unaware of any video that captured Wednesday night's shooting. Police did not identify the officer but said he is 32 and a six-year veteran of the police department.

PROTESTERS GATHER

Word of the officer-involved shooting quickly spread across social media, and crowds of angry people began showing up and flooded the streets.

At one point, the crowd surrounded a police SUV and someone kicked and broke a taillight. Someone in the angry crowd broke out a rear window of a police SUV as it drove away.

Police closed Grand between Russell and Interstate 44 before midnight. A tactical team showed up to order people out of the street. Some protesters were sitting in the road. Others marched north on Grand. They shouted, "Black lives matter."

The crowd included several who said they were Myers’ relatives. Some shouted at police, and some were in tears.

By about 4 a.m., Grand was reopened to traffic in both directions and most of the protesters had left. About 40 people stood on the corner at Shaw as thunder rumbled in the distance.

Jackie Williams, 47, said Myers was his nephew and lived with him in the 4200 block of Castleman Avenue, near the shooting scene. He said he had talked to several people who had been with his nephew or saw the shooting.

“My nephew was coming out of a store from purchasing a sandwich. Security was supposedly searching for someone else. They Tased him,” Williams said. “I don’t know how this happened, but they went off and shot him 16 times. That’s outright murder.”

A police spokeswoman said the officer did not have a Taser.

Williams said Myers worked at a warehouse and attended high school.

Lavell Boyd, 47, lives in the neighborhood and said he happened upon the scene as he was going to a store on Shaw to pick up a sandwich. Boyd said he heard 14 or 15 shots as he was in his car.

“When I pulled up I saw the cop standing over him (Myers) then he pointed the gun at everyone else telling everyone to get back while he was searching for another clip,” Boyd said.

Boyd said he heard others nearby telling the officer “you killed my friend.”

Several neighbors also gathered at the scene. Some said they were surprised by the shooting.

“This is not normal,” said Dorenda Townsend, 42, who lives in the Shaw neighborhood. “I’ve lived here over 20 years.”

Some also expressed concern that the shooting involved police.

“I pray this is not another Mike Brown situation,” said Sharon Norman, 50, referring to a shooting in August in Ferguson in which a police officer fatally shot a teenager, which has prompted many protests.

Ronnie Sparks, 45, who lives in the Shaw neighborhood, said his son, Cameron Ming, 21, was with Myers on Wednesday night. After the shooting, Sparks said Ming was talking with police.

"They have been harassing him all day like they do all the time, puling him over, stopping him," Sparks said of his son. "That's how it is. They harass the kids in the neighborhood. Our kids walk around in their own neighborhood and get harassed for it."

Dotson said there had been no arrests of those involved in the protests that followed.

Here’s a wide look at the scene on Shaw at Klemm in south #STL. @kmoxnews pic.twitter.com/o6xfmtIWMz — Michael Calhoun (@michaelcalhoun) October 9, 2014

 cincydooley wrote:
So....does the truth as to whether the suspect fired on the cop matter at all?

 Bromsy wrote:

 cincydooley wrote:
So....does the truth as to whether the suspect fired on the cop matter at all?

Nope, everyone knows that if you fire a sandwich at a cop, it's only a misdemeanor.

 Bromsy wrote:

 cincydooley wrote:
So....does the truth as to whether the suspect fired on the cop matter at all?

Nope, everyone knows that if you fire a sandwich at a cop, it's only a misdemeanor.