The Rev. Al Sharpton said Sunday that "the fight ain't over" in the wake of the grand jury declining to indict a white police officer in the killing of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Speaking Sunday at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis where Brown's funeral was held in August, Sharpton said the
resignation of Officer Darren Wilson on Saturday is not enough.
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"Reporters started calling me, saying the officer had resigned from his job and said that he hopes it would lead to healing the city," Sharpton said. "But you can't heal leaving the injured out of the process."
Brown's family still has "open wounds" from his death, Sharpton said, and that "taking his job" was never the objective of protesters. They want a federal investigation.
"It was not about Darren Wilson's job. It was about Michael Brown's justice," Sharpton said. "Because we saw Michael, their son, as if it could have been ours. And we are not giving up. We said from the first rally – we didn't trust the local grand jury."
U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder has said the Justice Department is conducting two civil rights investigations, one against Wilson and one against the Ferguson Police Department that has 50 white officers and three black officers even though the St. Louis suburb is 67 percent black.
"We lost the round, but the fight ain't over," Sharpton told the congregation on Sunday. "You won the first round, Mr. Prosecutor, but don’t cut your gloves off, 'cause the fight's not over. Justice will come to Ferguson."
Sharpton was referring to St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch, whom critics say didn't try hard enough to convince the grand jury to indict Wilson. McCulloch's father was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty by a black man.
But McCulloch says he offered every piece of evidence and every witness he had to the grand jury to allow its members to make a decision on whether to prosecute.
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