FERGUSON, Mo., (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met with community members in Ferguson, Missouri, yesterday and vowed a thorough civil rights probe into the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager that has set off 11 nights of racially charged unrest.
Holder, the first African-American to head the Justice Department, met with students and then community leaders at a community college during a visit to Ferguson for a briefing on a Justice Department investigation into the Aug. 9 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
He later met privately with Brown’s parents at the St. Louis U.S. Attorney’s Office, but no details of that session were immediately available.
Also yesterday, a grand jury investigating the fatal shooting began hearing evidence in the case.
Before a briefing at local FBI headquarters, Holder said the thrust of his department’s inquiry differed from the investigation conducted by local authorities.
“We are looking for violations of federal, criminal civil rights statutes,” he said.
The Justice Department probe specifically seeks to determine whether federal prosecutors can bring criminal charges against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown, for violating Brown’s civil rights by use of excessive force.
His visit came hours after dozens of protesters were arrested in the latest street disturbances since the shooting. Many of the protests have been peaceful, but others, especially smaller ones late at night, have been punctuated by looting, vandalism and clashes between demonstrators and police.
