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1st LD: U.S. Justice Department clears police officer of civil rights violations in Ferguson shooting

Xinhua, March 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday that it would not prosecute former police officer Darren Wilson for civil rights violations in his deadly shooting of the unarmed black man Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last summer.

"There is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson's stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety," the DOJ said in a report, concluding that "Wilson's actions do not constitute prosecutable violations" of relevant federal civil rights law.

The investigation was ordered by Attorney General Eric Holder after the deadly shooting occurred last August.

Widespread of protests erupted last year after local grand juries declined to indict police officers involved in the Ferguson incident and another choking death of black man Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York City.

In his first public discussion after the Ferguson and New York City incidents raised heated debates in recent months, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey acknowledged on Feb. 12 that U.S. society is "at a crossroads" on racial relations.

The DOJ is also expected to release a Ferguson investigation report later Wednesday, in which sources familiar with the contents said the DOJ concluded that a widespread discrimination against the black communities existed among police forces and other law enforcement officials in Ferguson. Endite