Ferguson cops ask for help tracking down 180 grand jury looters

The St. Louis County Police Department is asking community members for help in identifying 180 individuals who looted a convenience store during the night a grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown.

On Wednesday, the law-enforcement agency posted a video taken from a security camera that shows multiple individuals breaking into and robbing the Ferguson-area Dellwood market.

The SLCPD also published more than 160 screenshots of the video that isolate potential suspects.

Despite ongoing tensions between Ferguson residents and area cops, Sergeant Brian Schellman, a spokesperson for the SLCPD, claims they’ve had a good response from the community on this campaign.

“We’ve had five people identified with the public’s help,” Schellman told Fusion.

“Many of the commanders have heard from the actual citizens who live in Ferguson, Dellwood, or surrounding areas and this is something that they really want, to find out who destroyed their communities.”

But why put out the bulletin now, more than two months since the store was destroyed? Manpower, says Schellman.

“We’re dealing with more than 50 crimes over 50 properties and we don’t have the resources to hire more detectives.” he said. “We’re first exhausting all leads and then going to the public for help.”

For his part, Dellwood Market owner Mumtaz Lalani has said that he has no plans of rebuilding. He claimed in December that the November 24 incident was the third time his store was vandalized since the start of the Ferguson protests.

Fidel Martinez is an editor at Fusion.net. He’s also a Texas native and a lifelong El Tri fan.