Police release name of Ferguson police officer in Michael Brown shooting

The police have released new details about the shooting of Michael Brown and the incidents that led up to his death.

The New York Times reports that the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown was a police officer of six years named Darren Wilson. The first two years of Wilson's career were spent with a nearby police force, and Wilson had served with the Ferguson Police Department for four years. Wilson does not have a history of past behavioral or disciplinary violations. He has been put on administrative leave of duty.

The release of the officer's name was meant to quell the anger of the community, which questioned why he had not been identified nearly a week after the shooting that left Michael Brown dead.  That anger was so great that a number of civil rights groups filed lawsuits in order to compel the police department to release that information.

At the same time of the release of the information about the police officer, the Ferguson Police Department released video and still photographs that showed Michael Brown stealing what appears to be a pack of cigarettes from a local convenience store.

The video shows Brown reaching behind the counter and passing something to his friend. As a store clerk confronted him, he pushed the clerk into a rack holding snack foods and walked out the door.

However, the Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said that at the time of Officer Wilson's interaction with Brown, Wilson did not know that he was accused of shoplifting.

Jackson said that the officer confronted Brown and his friend for walking in the street, which is what his friend had claimed on national television in the days after the shooting.

Tensions in the community have declined somewhat after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon placed security in Ferguson under the control of the Missouri State Police.