The St. Louis County Police Department on Wednesday released footage of more than 180 people looting a small market following a grand jury’s November decision not to indict a white Ferguson, Mo., police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, CNN reported.
The surveillance video showed dozens of people pouring through a smashed display window into the family-owned Dellwood Market near Ferguson, many of them leaving with stolen goods. Owner Jan Lalani told CNN that the business sustained an estimated $300,000 in losses.
The police department also released nearly 200 still images captured by security cameras in the building, St. Louis television station KTVI reported.
Dellwood Market was one of several businesses targeted the night of Nov. 24, when a St. Louis County grand jury announced that it would not indict the officer in the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. Some 20 buildings and 12 vehicles in the area were torched, and dozens of people were arrested. (Area protests grew more peaceful as the week progressed.)
Missouri officials later estimated that protest-related security costs set the state back $12.5 million.
The police were asking for the public’s help in identifying the looters captured on film, CNN reported.
Watch the video released by the St. Louis County Police Department below:
…and how many of the looters were Ferguson residents?
Wonder how many were bus-ed in to promote unrest and chaos?
Times like this I wish they had national guardsmen hiding in the stores to pop up and yell “Surprise” when all the looters have made entry
then again that would entail actually having a plan or a clue what the hell you are doing versus completely winging it
I’m sure all of these people were just seeking justice. In aisle 3.
Oh please, the overwhelming majority of protesters were peaceful and fine, but if you think looters needed to be “bused in” you are tripping. There are ALWAYS punks nearby who will exploit a situation. And that is a key point. These people are not “protesters”, these are people who said to themselves “protest?, hmmm, good cover to do some looting”… Of course the prosecutor looking to get his face in prime time and announcing the decision at night was not too bright, and I am sure police were not happy about it. But these are real looters from the area, they were not “bused in”, that is just silly. And if some were not directly from Ferguson, they were from close by.
Not really a good idea, some places were set on fire, I would not want to be in a place that was set on fire. Might have been a good idea to install some high quality surveillance cameras in many stores temporarily though.