Two years after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed back teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking weeks of unrest and demonstrations, the subject of how to improve race relations still reverberates across the U.S.
In August 2014, 18 year old Michael Brown was shot 6 times by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson after an altercation, where according to police, Brown struggled with Wilson before the fatal shots were fired.
But witnesses to the shooting claimed that wasn't true, and that Brown had held up his hands and was surrendering when he was shot multiple times in the head and chest.
Brown's family released private autopsy findings in August saying they did not trust local officials account of the incident.
"They did not want to be left having to rely on the autopsy done by the Saint Louis law enforcement agencies, the same individuals they feel are responsible for executing their son in broad daylight," said Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing the Brown family.
As the details of the original shooting event emerged from investigators, angry Ferguson residents took to the streets to protest. Peaceful protests quickly turned into looting and violence causing millions of dollars of property damage, leading police to set curfews and deploy riot squads.
Following the protests, police were sharply criticized for what was seen as a heavy handed response to the protests in the days after Brown's death - firing tear gas and arresting hundreds of people.
Brown supporters also criticized the Ferguson police department for its decision to release a video that allegedly showed Brown taking part in a convenience store robbery shortly before the shooting. Police have said the officer who shot Brown had no idea he was a robbery suspect.
Supporters of the officer rallied on his behalf, too. "We will not hide, we will no longer live in fear, we as this question: Can justice ever be obtained if one side's supporters live in fear of speaking out?" an unnamed officer said at one August rally.
Soon after the violence began, President Barack Obama weighed in on the government's investigation into the case.
"It's hard for me to address a specific case beyond making sure that it's conducted in a way that is transparent, where there's accountability, where people can trust the process hoping that as a consequence of a fair and just process, you end up with a fair and just outcome," Obama said.
The announcement of a grand jury's decision not to indict Wilson in the shooting death of the unarmed teenager Brown was met with chaos and widespread protests again.
The extreme police response both after the shooting, and the grand jury's announcement, became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department. In March 2015, the U.S. Justice Department announced that they had determined that the FPD had engaged in misconduct against the citizenry of Ferguson, by discriminating against African-Americans and applying racial stereotypes, in a "pattern or practice of unlawful conduct."
Protesters and civil rights groups have said Brown's death was part of a national epidemic in which a disproportionately high number of unarmed black men are fatally shot by white police officers, an allegation police deny.
