Michael Brown prophesied his death in Ferguson, stepmother tells funeral
Michael Brown, the 18-year-old boy shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, had visions of his death in the weeks before his controversial death, his stepmother has revealed.
The black teen, whose shooting in the St Louis suburb by a white officer ignited protests and a national debate on race, was eulogised at a cathartic funeral service as a victim of abusive policing whose untimely death demands justice.
Cal Brown, who is married to Michael's father, said she had been having conversations about God with her stepson 'Mike Mike' when he thought she would "not make it" as she lay in hospital.
"Mike Mike told me, 'I didn’t think you were going to make it.' And I said why and he said, 'Because I've been dreaming of death, seeing pictures of death, seeing pictures of bloody sheets hanging on clotheslines,'" she told a church filled with mourners during his funeral service.
"That touched me. That’s what it was like when he was laying there on the street (after being shot). He prophesised his own death."
Michael Brown's stepmother, Cal Brown (second from right) sits with her husband Michael Brown Sr during the funeral services for 18-year-old Michael Brown. Also pictured are from left: Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother and Louis Head, Michael Brown's stepfather. Photo: AP
Brown's family bid farewell to the 18-year-old with gospel hymns and fiery orations that rocked a packed Baptist church not far from where he was killed August 9.
"All of us are required to respond to this. And all of us must solve this," said the Reverend Al Sharpton, who delivered an impassioned speech that drew shouts of agreement from the mourners.
"This is not about you. This is about justice. This is about fairness. And America is going to have to come to terms when there's something wrong," the civil rights activist added.
Brown's family bid farewell to the 18-year-old with gospel hymns and fiery orations that rocked a packed Baptist church not far from where he was killed August 9. Photo: ABC News
People filled the 5000-seat Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church for a service that drew activists and religious leaders, as well as the Brown family and their friends.
Brown's closed bronze casket was flanked by large portraits of him as a young man and smaller ones showing him as a baby. A St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap was placed on the coffin next to a large bouquet of red roses.
Relatives and friends remembered him as a "gentle giant" who turned to religion in his last days and had premonitions of his own death.
The casket of Michael Brown sits inside Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church awaiting the start of his funeral. Photo: AP
But Sharpton brought the service back to the fatal act that riveted the nation and reopened old wounds of racial discrimination and distrust.
He recalled the scene after the shooting: "Michael Brown, 18-year-old boy, laid out in the street, hour and a half before the detective came. Another hour or so before they came in remove his body. Family couldn't come through the ropes. Dogs sniffing through. What did you do?"
Michael Brown Sr, yells out as the casket is lowered during the funeral service for his son Michael Brown in Normandy, Missouri. Photo: AP
Brown, Sharpton said, would not want to be remembered for the riots that erupted after his death but rather "as the one that made America deal with how we are going to police in the United States."
Absent from the service was Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who was asked by the family to stay away.
After the funeral service, Brown is to be buried in a private ceremony in St. Peter's cemetery.
The protests in Ferguson had subsided by Monday, but the debate over Brown's death and what it meant continued to rage.
"We have to have a conversation, people don't want to have a conversation about race, and we need this conversation," said Jane Brandon Brown, ambassador for the Kingdom of God international ministries.
Just days shy of starting college, Brown was walking down the street after leaving a convenience store where police say he stole a box of cigars when he was shot at least six times by white policeman Darren Wilson.
Accounts of the shooting differ widely, with police alleging Brown was trying to grab Wilson's gun.
But witnesses, including a friend of Brown's walking with him, said he was shot as he held his hands in the air in a clear sign of surrender.
"Hands up, don't shoot" has become the refrain of demonstrators who for the past two weeks have gathered in Ferguson to demand an open and transparent investigation and justice.
Lesley McSpadden, the mother Michael Brown, cries during her son's funeral. Photo: AP
At night, protests have at times erupted into vandalism and clashes with police, but the intensity appeared to have waned by Monday's funeral.
On Sunday, Brown's parents were joined at a demonstration by the father of Trayvon Martin, another unarmed black teen shot to death by a neighborhood watchman in 2012 in Florida.
Parallels also have been drawn to the case of Eric Garner, who died on New York's Staten Island on July 17 after police placed him in a chokehold while trying to arrest him on suspicion of selling illegal cigarettes.
- 'Justice will be served' -
A grand jury in St Louis is charged with deciding whether to bring charges against the police officer, 28, who for now is on paid leave.
Nixon told CNN Sunday he was "confident that, with the dual investigations" -- by local police and federal authorities -- "ultimately justice will be served here."
During the protests, authorities used battle-grade hardware -- including assault rifles, stun grenades and body armor -- sparking criticism of an overly aggressive approach.
As a result, President Barack Obama has ordered a review of federal programs that sell military hardware to local police.
News break - August 26
