Rumors are that a memorial honoring Michael Brown that lay just feet from where the unarmed teen was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri last month was burned early on Tuesday morning, according to fire officials.
The Ferguson Fire Department received a call around 6:45 a.m. about a fire on Canfield Drive. When fire fighters arrived they found the burning memorial which residents had erected in Brown’s honor. Firefighters extinguished the flames. For more than a month people had lit candles, laid cards and balloons and tied balloons to the memorial.
The memorial was one of two at the scene of the Aug. 9 shooting, this one erected around a telephone pole, the other in the center of Canfield Drive where Brown fell after being shot about a half-dozen times by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson after a brief struggle between the two. Police say Wilson shot Brown after the teen reached for the officer’s gun. Witnesses say Wilson shot at Brown as he tried to run away and fired the fatal gunshots as Brown turned with his hands up in surrender.
In the weeks after Brown was killed, protesters calling for justice in the teen’s death would begin or end marches at the very location he took his last breaths. Much of the early angst over Brown’s killing was a result of how law enforcement officials treated his body after the shooting. They left his remains uncovered in the middle of the street for more than four hours, baking in the afternoon sun for all to see.
