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Former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson will not be charged with the 2014 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell launched a reinvestigation into the shooting and announced on Thursday that no charges will be filed.
READ MORE: Ferguson: 5 years after Mike Brown police shooting, racial tension lingers nationally
Bell, the first African American prosecutor in the county, defeated longtime prosecutor Bob McCulloch on the heels of the teen’s death. In an exclusive from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bell reportedly met with Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden to tell her that there is not enough evidence to charge Wilson with a crime.
“In the end, we cannot ethically bring this case to trial,” Bell said, “Our investigation does not exonerate Darren Wilson.”
Bell has expressed concerns that the news will not be well-received. However, he maintains that it was the best decision. Bell’s office is also investigating a number of other old cases including other murder investigations.
In an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, Bell and Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, wrote about the responsibility of prosecutors.
“Prosecutors are the gatekeepers of the justice system,” he wrote, “Elected prosecutors have the power to reject decades of punitive approaches that have fueled mass incarceration. And now more than ever communities are demanding that paradigm shift.”
READ MORE: Mike Brown’s legacy to be memorialized in new film by Warner Bros.
Michael Brown was shot during an interaction with Wilson who was trying to tell the teenager to stop walking in the street. Wilson shot Brown and his body remained in the street for hours. The shooting was one of the early catalysts of the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked protests around the nation.
The teen’s parents asked Bell to review the case following his election. “I think we owed them that,” Bell said the reinvestigation would “honor a transformative movement that will forever be tied to his memory.”
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