Brown family lawyer: 'The process should be indicted'

FERGUSON, Mo. — The lawyer representing Michael Brown's family on Tuesday blasted the prosecutor whose grand jury declined to charge a white police officer in the August shooting death of the unarmed, black teen.

St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced Monday night that the grand jury of nine whites and three blacks, who met on 25 days over three months, had determined Darren Wilson, 28, should face no charges. That set off a wave of demonstrations that turned violent, with buildings set ablaze, 61 people arrested and more than a dozen injured.

"We saw how completely how unfair this process was," lawyer Benjamin Crump said Tuesday. "We object as publicly and loudly as we can on behalf of Michael Brown Jr.'s family that this process is broken. The process should be indicted."

Crump said Wilson's testimony doesn't fit his injuries and other physical evidence. Crump accused McCulloch of defending Wilson rather than prosecuting him — of failing to put his "best case" before the grand jury.

"Why change the rules when it is our children (of color) dead on the ground?" Crump said.

Late Monday, McCulloch released more than 1,000 pages of documents and testimony from the grand jury proceedings. That included testimony from Wilson, who said Brown attacked him in the patrol car, forcing him to shoot. Witnesses accounts differed on whether Brown's hands were raised, moments later, when Wilson fired the fatal shots on a Ferguson street, McCulloch said.

He stood by the grand jury's decision. "They are the only people that have heard and examined every witness and every piece of evidence," McCulloch said.

The announcement touched off a protest that, at its furious peak, saw demonstrators taunting police, shattering windows and setting fire to two police cars. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at least a dozen buildings burned and that he had heard at least 150 gunshots, none fired by police. He said 59 of those arrested were from the area.