Ferguson Officer Who Killed Michael Brown Isn’t Charged

Six years after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a Black teenager, in Ferguson, Mo., another investigation into the killing has come to the same conclusion as the first: The officer should not be charged.

The officer, Darren Wilson, already had been cleared by a grand jury and a federal investigation months after the shooting in 2014. But Thursday’s announcement by a new prosecutor, Wesley Bell, most likely marks the end of the legal saga in a case that started the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has led to some major shifts in American policing and forced a renewed conversation about racism.

“Can we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred?” Mr. Bell, the top prosecutor in St. Louis County, said at a news conference. “The answer to that is no.”

The killing of Mr. Brown led to intense protests in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, where scenes of smashed windows, burning buildings and upset protesters choking in tear gas were seared into the minds of Americans. There were similar demonstrations in several cities this year after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, although many of the nationwide rallies featured no vandalism or violence.