St. Louis police have classified as suspicious the death of a man found in the vicinity of Monday night’s Ferguson, Mo., protests.
The body was discovered in a parked car at around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, just east of Canfield Drive, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That’s where, on Aug. 9 Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The St. Louis County crimes against persons unit is investigating the circumstances of the death.
“This incident is currently being classified as a suspicious death and will remain so until evidence allows a different classification,” Rick Eckhard, an officer with the St. Louis County Police Department, told reporters.
Ferguson was rocked by protests on Monday following an evening announcement by St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch that a grand jury had declined to indict Officer Wilson for killing Brown. The situation devolved into violence. As many as a dozen businesses were looted and set on fire, gunshots were fired near police officers, and teargas and other less-than-lethal weapons were deployed against demonstrators.
A Ferguson resident named Richard Taylor, who lived near where the body was found, told reporters that he witnessed four people with guns outside his apartment and overheard them talking about looting and, according to the Post-Dispatch, “saying they wanted to kill someone.” Taylor claims he called police and reported what he saw, but no officers showed up.
“There was a lot going on last night, but I thought at least someone would show up to arrest these guys,” he reportedly said.
It was further reported that a crying woman at the scene approached the vehicle, despite police attempts to hold her back, exclaiming: “They killed my baby.”
Authorities have yet to release the victim’s identity. No additional information, including the cause of death, is available at this time.
Photo by Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0)/Flickr