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#PrayForFerguson: Mike Brown Memorial Burned Overnight

By on September 23, 2014

Mike Brown Memorial

As if the shooting death of Mike Brown was not heartbreaking enough, a memorial honoring the unarmed teen, who was gunned down by police in Ferguson, Missouri last month, was burned to the ground early Tuesday morning.

The Ferguson Fire Department received a call around 6:45 a.m. reporting a fire on Canfield. When firefighters arrived, they found the memorial that lay just feet away from where the 18-year-old was shot and killed in flames.

Fire officials say the cause of the fire is “not immediately clear,” but noted that candles were a part of the memorial.

Witnesses have speculated that the fire was intentionally set and accuse police of not responding with urgency.

“I woke up to it,” Marcus Henley, a resident of the apartment complex near the scene, said of the burning memorial. “They light candles every night with no problem. I think somebody set it on fire. And that says a lot to me.”

Several hours after the fire was extinguished, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson issued a statement in which he said police did everything they could to put out the fire before the fire department arrived on the scene.

“We’re all saddened by the fire that was reported at one of the Michael Brown memorials this morning and are trying to obtain as much information as possible to determine what happened,” Jackson said. “To anyone who believes we didn’t do everything in our power to put this fire out I want to apologize and let you know that was not the case.”

The community is already working to rebuild the memorial, and encourages others to help.

Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Read more here.

 

 

(Photo Credit: Twitter)

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