Ferguson police shooting probe: FBI completes investigation

The FBI has completed its investigation into the police shooting of an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will file a federal civil rights charge against former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. But officials and experts have said such a prosecution would be highly unlikely, in part because of the extraordinarily high legal standard federal prosecutors would need to meet.

The official was not authorized to discuss the case by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson declined to comment.

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Wilson, who is white, was cleared in November by a state grand jury in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown, a shooting that touched off protests in the streets and became part of a national conversation about race relations and police departments that patrol minority neighbourhoods. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Ferguson in the days after the shooting to try to calm tensions and meet with Brown's family and law enforcement.

Wilson, who shot Brown after a scuffle in the middle of the street, told the St. Louis County grand jury that spent months reviewing the case that he feared for his life when Brown hit him and reached for his gun. Some witnesses have said Brown had his hands up when Wilson shot him.

Federal prosecutors face challenges

To mount a federal prosecution, the Justice Department would need to show that Wilson wilfully deprived Brown of his civil rights. That standard, which means prosecutors must prove that an officer knowingly used more force than the law allowed, is challenging for the government to meet. Multiple high-profile police-involved deaths, including the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, in New York City, have not resulted in federal charges.

Wilson, who had been on administrative leave since the shooting, resigned days after the grand jury decision. A lawyer for Ferguson did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

A separate, broader Justice Department-led investigation into the practices of the Ferguson police department remains open. That investigation, which will examine potential racial bias among officers, has the potential to have more sweeping consequences than any individual criminal prosecutions, experts say.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Justice Department lawyers were preparing a memo recommending against prosecuting Wilson, but that the memo was not yet complete and that Holder who is expected to leave his position within weeks had not yet made a decision.

Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for Brown's family, said in a statement that the family would not address speculation from anonymous officials and was waiting for an official Justice Department announcement.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, is conducting a separate federal civil rights investigation into the police chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City. In that case, too, a local grand jury declined to indict the officer. The U.S. attorney whose office is handling that investigation, Loretta Lynch, has been nominated to replace Holder and faces a Senate confirmation hearing next week.