Obama Accepts US Justice Department Decision Not to Charge Darren Wilson

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into the Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown was independent, thorough and objective, US President Barack Obama said in a speech on Friday.

“The finding that was made was that it was not unreasonable to determine that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Officer Wilson,” Obama said at a town hall meeting at Benedict College in South Carolina. “That was an objective, thorough, independent federal investigation.”

Obama said he has complete confidence and stand fully behind the decision that was made by the US Department of Justice Department on that issue.

“We may never know exactly what happened, but Officer Wilson like anybody else who was charged with a crime benefits from due process and a reasonable doubt standard, and if there is uncertainty about what happened, you cannot charge him anyway just because what happened was tragic,” Obama added.

The DOJ announced on Wednesday the evidence does not establish that Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old Brown in August 2014, violated the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute.

According to the DOJ, US federal criminal civil rights statutes require the government to prove that Wilson used “unreasonable force,” and that he did so willfully knowing that it was against the law.

The DOJ report marks the conclusion of a lengthy investigation of the Ferguson shooting, which sparked outrage and waves of often-violent demonstrations in the city as well as across the United States.