Michael Brown’s body lay exposed for community members and residents to see after he died from bullet wounds released by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9.

And St. Louis County police officers are defending their choice to leave the body of the unarmed 18-year-old teen who was shot by the police officer out in the open for four hours.

From New York Times:

St. Louis County police officials acknowledged that they were uncomfortable with the time it took to shield Mr. Brown’s body and have it removed, and that they were mindful of the shocked reaction from residents. But they also defended their work, saying that the time that elapsed in getting detectives to the scene was not out of the ordinary, and that conditions made it unusually difficult to do all that they needed.

“Michael Brown had one more voice after that shooting, and his voice was the detectives’ being able to do a comprehensive job,” said Jon Belmar, chief of the St. Louis County Police Department.

Read more at New York Times

Transferring a homicide investigation to the St. Louis County police, a much larger force with more specialized officers, was typical given the limited resources of the Ferguson Police Department.

According to logs, county police received a report of the shooting at 12:07, and their officers started arriving around 12:15.

Videos taken by witnesses show that in the first minutes after Brown’s death, officers quickly secured the area with yellow tape.

Around 12:10, a paramedic who happened to be in the area on another call, approached Brown’s body checked for a pulse and “observed the blood and injuries incompatible with life.”

Relatives at the scene said they begged for information but received nothing.

Justice for Michael Brown.

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