U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visits Ferguson as grand jury hearings begin

FERGUSON, Mo. – U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. visited Ferguson on Wednesday, meeting with students, community leaders and federal investigators as the St. Louis County prosecutor opened grand jury hearings in the fatal police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Holder’s arrival coincided with one of the most peaceful days since the Aug. 9 shooting touched off racial unrest and rioting in the Missouri town, with heavily armed police firing tear gas into crowds of demonstrators.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, who began presenting evidence Wednesday afternoon, said he expected it would take until mid-October to present all evidence in the case. The grand jury will decide whether to indict Darren Wilson, the white Ferguson police officer who shot Brown, who was black.

After the proceedings had begun, the prosecutor’s spokesman, Ed Magee, said that Wilson “will be afforded the opportunity to testify.”

Away from the courthouse, Holder toured the fractious St. Louis suburb as he met with students and community leaders, sat down for lunch with residents at a diner and briefed reporters on developments in the federal investigation into the shooting. While the prosecutor’s investigation will focus on the circumstances of Brown’s death, Holder told a crowd of reporters, the Justice Department will investigate whether Brown’s civil rights were violated.

Holder said that, as a black man, he understood how the shooting had inflamed racial tensions. He told a group of young people about discriminatory actions he encountered years ago with New Jersey state troopers and Georgetown police officers.

“I am the attorney general of the United States. But I am also a black man. I can remember being stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike on two occasions and accused of speeding. Pulled over. ‘Let me search your car.’ Go through the trunk of my car, look under the seats and all this kind of stuff,” he said. “I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me.”

John Phillips, an Army veteran and San Diego native, dismissed the attorney general’s visit as “a photo op” and said he was “pretty incensed.”

“Nobody wants to address the real issues,” Phillips said. “It’s bigger than Michael Brown. It’s about economic development and integrating the two Fergusons, black Ferguson and white Ferguson.”

Patrick Green, mayor of neighboring Normandy, met with Holder during a subsequent gathering of about 60 local leaders, pastors and Ferguson residents.

Green said there’s an urgent need for accountability as the case heads to a grand jury this week, with protesters shifting Wednesday from West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson to the courthouse.

“We have a small window here,” he said. “This can be explosive – you’re dealing with people’s emotions.”

But McCulloch has stressed that the grand jury proceedings will take time, as investigators corral witnesses and finalize their presentation of evidence.

In anticipation of the grand jury hearing, a crowd of media and about 50 demonstrators converged Wednesday morning outside the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in the nearby St. Louis suburb of Clayton.

A group of African-American attorneys has called on McCulloch to remove himself from the case, accusing him of bias. He has declined to do so.

Gov. Jay Nixon said he would not call on McCulloch to step aside from the case.

Police have said Wilson shot Brown in self-defense. Some witnesses have said that Wilson was the aggressor in an altercation between the two men and fired as Brown’s hands were raised in surrender.

Unlike those on most previous nights, demonstrations Tuesday night in Ferguson in connection with the shooting were largely peaceful, and no tear gas was fired by law enforcement. At least 47 people were arrested as of early Wednesday, mainly on charges of failing to disperse, officials said.

Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is in charge of the law enforcement response and also met with Holder on Wednesday, said he hoped the situation represented a turning point in the consecutive nights of chaotic, often violent protests in which heavily armed police have fired tear gas to disperse unruly crowds. Several local businesses have been looted and vandalized, and one was burned.