Word quickly spread from witnesses who believed the shooting was unjustified, that Brown was trying to surrender. What we didn’t know at the time was the depth of mistrust between Black residents and the predominantly White Ferguson Police Department, a level of suspicion that no doubt fueled what happened next.
On Sunday evening, thousands of people crowded the same street where Brown was killed for a vigil. The anger was evident, but the event was peaceful. Suddenly, a young woman came running: “They’re rioting on West Florissant.”
I ran the three blocks to the busy four-lane street lined with retail businesses. My attention was drawn to a large group of people cheering and yelling obscenities in the direction of a QuikTrip convenience store.
By the time I got there, it was on fire. People were running out, their arms full of stolen goods.
Never before had the anger been as intense in Ferguson. Young men began hurling bricks through store windows, kicking in doors, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police cars.
The destruction that night led police to adopt a tougher stance. By Monday, hundreds of officers in riot gear, some in armored trucks, lined the streets. Now police were becoming more aggressive. Some aimed their threats and angry words at protesters and journalists.
AP reporters, photographers and videographers from around the nation arrived, and the words and images we helped capture became part of the national debate about police interaction with Black communities, the police response to protests and economic disparity between the races.
It was often harrowing work. Our journalists faced threats from protesters and police. Gas masks and bulletproof vests arrived, but many of us on the front lines of the riots felt the sting of tear gas when we failed to deploy the masks quickly enough.
The unrest lasted for months, worsened by a series of fatal police shootings in St. Louis. Most of the protests were nonviolent.
Meanwhile, local authorities had released virtually no information about when the grand jury considering potential charges for Wilson would render a final decision.
The announcement that Wilson would not be charged finally arrived on the evening of Nov. 24. The night produced striking visuals of buildings engulfed in flames and riot police massed under a “Season’s Greetings” banner.
The next morning, the AP team was back out on the streets of Ferguson as the National Guard rolled in and the community assessed the damage.
Ferguson became the impetus for a national movement. Soon, other fatal police encounters with Black suspects drew similar scrutiny.
After Ferguson, old presumptions are gone and new questions asked. The events there intensified how the nation looks at law enforcement, the use of deadly force and the inflamed relations between Blacks and American police.
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