AP Gets Internal Planning Documents Before November Ferguson Grand Jury Announcement February 17, 2015

(AP) – Newly released documents reveal that police planning for a grand jury announcement wanted National Guard troops and armored Humvees stationed in a Ferguson neighborhood where Michael Brown had been shot.

But the records show the requests were not granted, because Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon preferred to use the Guard in a support role to police.

Nixon’s office provided the documents to The Associated Press on Tuesday under an open records request. Some of the materials also were provided to a legislative committee looking into why the National Guard was not more quickly deployed to stop looting and arsons after the Nov. 24 announcement that officer Darren Wilson wouldn’t be charged in Brown’s death.

Nixon has defended his decision to use police, instead of military troops, on the front lines

Nixon Flips: No Special Session Needed Now December 1, 2014

(AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon now says a special legislative session will not be necessary to pay for the public safety response to protests in the St. Louis area.

Nixon’s decision Monday came after legislative leaders suggested he could use existing budget authority to pay National Guard and Missouri State Highway Patrol officers who have been on duty.

The governor said Friday night that he planned to call a special session because costs appeared on track to exceed what was allowed in the budget.

The governor activated the National Guard because of protests over a grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, for the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown. Protesters set fires and looted stores after the decision was announced.

Nixon Orders More Guard Troops to Ferguson November 25, 2014

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered more National Guard troops into north Sy Louis County early Tuesday morning.
Part of the Nixon statement says, “The Guard is providing security at the Ferguson Police Department, which will allow additional law enforcement officers to protect the public.”
Nixon activated some Guard troops and deared a state of emergency before Monday announcement about the Ferguson Grand Jury not I ducting police officer Darren Wilson.

Prosecutor Wants Status Cleared Up, Shooting Evidence to Washinton,, Guard Leaving Ferguson August 22, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) – The streets of Ferguson were peaceful for another night, as protests and tensions were subsiding in the St. Louis suburb where unrest had erupted after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old.

Gov. Jay Nixon also ordered the Missouri National Guard, which arrived Monday, to begin withdrawing as flare-ups have been easing. Police have made only a handful of arrests in the protest area on the past two nights.

“I feel we’re making progress,” Nixon told KMOX-AM, noting that a state of emergency remained in effect in Ferguson.

About 100 people gathered Thursday evening, walking in laps near the spot where Michael Brown was shot on Aug. 9. Some were in organized groups, such as clergy members. Police said there had been seven arrests, mainly for failure to disperse. That compares with six on Wednesday night and 47 the previous night – providing hope among law enforcement leaders that tensions were beginning to wane.

Several protesters were still calling Thursday night for St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch to be removed from the case. Some question McCulloch’s ability to be unbiased since his father, mother and other relatives worked for St. Louis police. His father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect.

McCulloch reiterated Thursday that he has no intentions of stepping aside, and urged Nixon to decide once and for all if he will act on the calls for his ouster. While Nixon said this week he is not asking McCulloch to recuse himself, a McCulloch aide, Ed Magee, said the governor ‘didn’t take an actual position one way or the other.”

McCulloch said in a statement Nixon must “end this distraction” or risk a delay in resolving the investigation.

A grand jury began considering evidence this week to determine whether the officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, should be charged. Magee said there was no timeline for the process, but it could take weeks.

Federal authorities have also launched an independent investigation into Brown’s death, and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill told The Associated Press that all of the physical evidence from the case was being flown Thursday from St. Louis to the FBI forensics lab in Quantico, Virginia. The evidence includes shell casings and trajectories, blood patterns and clothing, the Missouri Democrat said.

“The only thing you have to test the credibility of eyewitnesses to a shooting like this is in fact the physical evidence,” McCaskill said. “I’m hopeful the forensic evidence will be clear and will shed a lot more light on what the facts were.”

McCaskill also announced that next month she will lead a Senate hearing to look into the militarization of local police departments after criticism of the earlier law enforcement response to the protests in Ferguson.

National Guard Sent to Ferguson, Autopsy: Brown Shot 6 Times August 18, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s governor on Monday ordered the National Guard to a St. Louis suburb convulsed by protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, after a night in which police used tear gas to clear protesters off the streets well ahead of a curfew.

Gov. Jay Nixon said the National Guard would help “in restoring peace and order” to Ferguson, where protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer entered their second week. Police said they acted in response to gunfire, looting, vandalism and protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails.

“These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes,” Nixon said in a statement.

The latest confrontations came on the same day Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on Brown, and as a preliminary private autopsy reported by The New York Times found Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.

As night fell in Ferguson Sunday, another peaceful protest quickly deteriorated and the streets were empty well before the midnight curfew.

“Based on the conditions, I had no alternative but to elevate the level of response,” said Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, who is in charge of security in Ferguson. At least two people were wounded in shootings by civilians, he said.

The “extraordinary circumstances” surrounding Brown’s death and a request by his family prompted the Justice Department’s decision to conduct a third autopsy, agency spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. The examination was to take place as soon as possible, Fallon said.

The results of a state-performed autopsy would be taken into account along with the federal examination in the Justice Department’s ongoing civil rights investigation, Fallon said.

Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner, told The New York Times that one of the bullets entered the top of Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when he suffered a fatal injury.

Brown also was shot four times in the right arm, and all the bullets were fired into his front, Baden said.

The Justice Department already had deepened its investigation into the shooting. A day earlier, officials said 40 FBI agents were going door-to-door gathering information in the Ferguson neighborhood where Brown was shot to death Aug. 9.

A federally conducted autopsy “more closely focused on entry point of projectiles, defensive wounds and bruises” might help that investigation, said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who supervised the criminal civil rights section of Miami’s U.S. attorney’s office.

Federal authorities also want to calm any public fears that no action will be taken on the case, Weinstein said.

Police have said little about the encounter between Brown and the officer, except to say that it involved a scuffle in which the officer was injured and Brown was shot. Witnesses say the teenager had his hands in the air as the officer fired multiple rounds.

Sunday’s clashes in Ferguson erupted three hours before the curfew imposed by Nixon. Officers in riot gear ordered all the protesters to disperse, and many did, but about 100 stood about two blocks away until getting hit by another volley of tear gas.

Protesters laid a line of cinder blocks across the street in an apparent attempt to block police vehicles, which easily plowed through. Someone set a trash bin on fire, and the crackle of gunfire could be heard from several blocks away.

Within two hours, most people had been cleared off West Florissant Avenue, one of the community’s main thoroughfares. The streets remained quiet as the curfew began. It was to remain in effect until 5 a.m.