Micheal Brown, the 19-year-old who was shot killed during a struggle with a Ferguson, Mo. police officer, will be honored with a brass plaque near the spot of his death, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
A makeshift memorial of stuffed animals cropped up after Brown’s death, but it proved to be a hazard, sparking a mini-riot when lit candles caught the stuffed animals on fire. The permanent memorial will be a brass plaque with the figure of a dove over it.
The memorial was announced by Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr. and Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, and reads:
In Memory Of Michael O.D. Brown
May 20, 1996 — August 6, 2014I would like the memory of
Michael Brown to be a happy one. He left an
afterglow of smiles when life was done.
He leaves and echo whispering softly down the ways,
of happy and loving times and bright sunny days.
He’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before
the sun of happy memories that he left
behind when life was done.
In his memory & in place of the memorial, this plaque is dedicated on what would've been his 19th birthday #MikeBrown pic.twitter.com/Jycq5Nd0uO
— HBCU Buzz (@HBCUBuzz) May 20, 2015
The stuffed animals were removed from the site and were promised to be stored elsewhere, but the Post-Dispatch reports:
Despite the mayor’s comment that the items taken from the makeshift memorial would be stored, many of them appeared to have been put in a trash bin outside the Urban League’s office Wednesday night.
Pictures of trashed stuffed animals and candles were posted on Twitter by protesters who questioned whether there was ever a plan to store them.
Reached after those pictures were posted, Knowles reiterated that it was his understanding that the Urban League would be storing the items. As for the city, he said, “we didn’t remove the the items and we never took possession.”