Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a federal autopsy of a teenager shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, seeking to assure the family and community there will be a thorough investigation into a death that has sparked days of racially charged protests, according to The Associated Press.
Black eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot by white police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, the AP reported. The police department in the St. Louis suburb has come under strong criticism for both the death of an unarmed man and its handling of the aftermath.
Holder called for the federal autopsy, in addition to one being conducted by state medical examiners, "due to the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case and at the request of the Brown family," Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon said, the AP reported.
"This independent examination will take place as soon as possible," Fallon said, according to the AP. "Even after it is complete, Justice Department officials still plan to take the state-performed autopsy into account in the course of their investigation."
The family is also planning to have a pathologist conduct an independent examination of the body, a family spokesman said, according to the AP.
The Justice Department already had deepened its civil rights investigation into the shooting. Officials said a day earlier that 40 FBI agents were going door-to-door gathering information in the Ferguson, Missouri, neighborhood where Brown, who was unarmed, was shot to death Aug. 9 in the street, the AP reported.
The Justice Department's announcement followed the first night of a state-imposed curfew in Ferguson, which ended with tear gas and seven arrests after police dressed in riot gear used armored vehicles to disperse defiant protesters, according to the AP.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said protesters were not the reason for the escalated police reaction early Sunday after the midnight curfew took effect, the AP reported. He cited a report of people who had broken into a barbecue restaurant and taken to the roof, and a man who flashed a handgun in the street as armored vehicles approached the crowd of protesters.
At a Sunday afternoon rally, Johnson said he had met members of Brown's family and the experience "brought tears to my eyes and shame to my heart," according to the AP.
"When this is over, I'm going to go in my son's room. My black son, who wears his pants sagging, who wears his hat cocked to the side, got tattoos on his arms, but that's my baby," Johnson told the crowd, the AP reported. Johnson added: "We all need to thank the Browns for Michael. Because Michael's going to make it better for our sons to be better black men."
