When the grand jury decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson on charges for shooting and killing unarmed teen Michael Brown, emotions were riding high, especially for his family. After the decision was announced (Nov. 24) that Wilson would not face charges, Brown’s stepfather Louis Head erupted with anger. While in the crowd outside of the courthouse in Clayton, MO, he could be seen yelling “burn this b#### down!” several times.
Now authorities are debating on whether to charge Head with inciting a riot or not.
“We are pursuing those comments and there is a lot of discussion going on about that right now,” Ferguson police Chief Tom Jackson told television host Sean Hannity. “But I really can’t get into that right now.”
In a statement released to NBC, Head says he let his emotions get the best of him.
“I was so angry and full of raw emotions, as so many others were, and granted, I screamed out words that I shouldn’t have screamed in the heat of the moment,” Head said.
The grand jury’s decision lead to another night of looting, riots and residents clashing with the police in Ferguson.
The family’s attorney Benjamin Crump has called Head’s comments “indefensible.”
“We don’t condone people acting on emotion calling for people to do irresponsible things at all,” Crump told CNN.” And so we want his family, his mother and father’s message to come across louder than anybody who might be associated with them … And they can’t control what others do.”
Read the rest of Head’s statement below.
But to place blame solely on me for the conditions of our community, and country, after the grand jury decision goes way too far and is as wrong as the decision itself. To declare a state of emergency and send a message of war, and not peace, before a grand jury decision was announced is also wrong. In the end, I’ve lived in this community for a long time. The last thing I truly wanted was to see it go up in flames. In spite of my frustration, it really hurt to see that. Now it’s time to rebuild. If we are to honor Michael Brown’s memory, we need to work together to make rebuilding happen.