Ferguson mayor: Officer Darren Wilson remains on force

Darren Wilson – the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who fatally shot unarmed teen Michael Brown – will remain employed with local law enforcement, the town’s mayor said on Tuesday.

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told attendees at a press conference that “no decision has been made” at this time with respect to Wilson’s role with the police department, and that the officer’s “current employment status has not changed.”

Wilson, 28, will stay employed by the Ferguson Police Department pending the results of an internal investigation, Knowles added.

On Monday evening, it was announced that a grand jury tasked with investigating the August 9 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, 18, had decided not to indict Wilson on any charges related to the incident. An investigation from the Ferguson PD may lead to disciplinary action, however, and the US Department of Justice is currently conducting a civil rights probe of the incident.

Knowles was joined at Tuesday’s presser by local faith leaders who urged Ferguson residents and activists from out of town to keep calm during further protests expected this week in Missouri and across the US.

“We do not condone the violence that took place,” said Rev Timothy Woods, pastor of First Freewill Baptist Church. “We condemn those act. We condemn those things that were done.”

Dozens of people were arrested in Ferguson on Monday evening and more than a dozen structures were set ablaze following news that the grand jury had failed to indict Wilson on any charges related to Brown’s death.

Knowles said during Tuesday’s presser that the National Guard “was not deployed in enough time to save all of our businesses,” and called the wild mass protests “deeply concerning.”

The mayor said he is asking Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to “make available and deploy all necessary resources to prevent the further destruction of property and the preservation of life in Ferguson.”