The St. Louis County, Mo., grand jury hearing the Michael Brown case will reconvene Monday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Barricades were erected outside the county Justice Center in Clayton on Saturday in preparation for an announcement of the grand jury’s decision. Protesters have been preparing to take to the streets if Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson is not charged in the killing Aug. 9 of Brown, 18, during a confrontation in a street beside an apartment complex. Police have been readying a response, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has called in the National Guard for extra protection of some locations.
Officials have said that Wilson ordered Brown and another man to stop walking in the street that day and then realized they fit the description of two men suspected in a theft of cigarillos from a nearby store. They said Wilson, 28, still in a police SUV, struggled with Brown through the open window and that at least one shot was fired from the officer’s pistol, striking Brown in the thumb. Brown then ran and Wilson shot him, although witness accounts to reporters varied about whether Brown was surrendering and whether he was moving back toward the officer when he was hit with six or seven shots. The killing triggered weeks of protests that drew international attention.