Darren Wilson, the Missouri police officer who fatally shot the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, will likely never return to policing, his lawyer has said.
“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” Neil Bruntrager said. "Realistically, he can't go back to being a police officer, he knows that. There's no illusion about any of this. But it's the way in which he leaves ... that's important to him on different levels."
Brown’s death set off months of protests in the city of Ferguson, St Louis, which were reignited this week this week after a grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the teenager’s death on Aug. 9
"Darren will never be a police officer again, and he understands that," attorney Jim Towey said. "Going forward it will be school, and trying to carve out a new niche, new career, for he and his family."
In an interview this week, Mr Wilson said he had a “clear conscience” over the killing and his legal team said he would not be contacting the family to express regret for the fatal encounter in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson.
Mr Wilson learned on Monday that a grand jury had decided not to charge him for the killing, a ruling that set off two nights of violent unrest in Ferguson. Tensions eased there over the Thanksgiving holiday but several demonstrators chanting “Black Lives Matter” were arrested in New York for trying to disrupt the annual Macy’s parade.
Despite criticisms of the grand jury process, Jay Nixon, the Missouri governor, said that he would not take up calls to bring in a special prosecutor. Mr Wilson meanwhile still faces a federal investigation into whether he violated Mr Brown's civil rights.
The 28-year-old police officer has been hiding since the shooting and his lawyers said that he had moved between “safe houses”. He rarely went out in public, wearing disguises on occasional evening trips to the cinema under the cover of darkness.
Details have also emerged about his turbulent personal life before the shooting.
Mr Wilson revealed in an interview this week that his new wife, Barbara Spradling, a fellow police officer, is expecting their first child.
The couple, who wed in a secret ceremony last month, were both married to other partners when their relationship began last year.
And court documents seen by the Mail Online show that Mr Wilson was involved in a violent altercation with her then husband, a fireman, when he came home and found the new lovers on the sofa.
(Telegraph)
