On November 24, 2014, surveillance video captured a man pouring gasoline onto boxes in the store and setting them on fire after the Grand Jury decision was announced in the Michael Brown case.
The cameras captured the entire crime.
The arsonist looked like an overweight white male with a beard possibly in his 30’s.
Now, a Missouri man has been charged with setting one of the fires at the Ferguson Market.
Federal prosecutors say they have surveillance camera images of Whiteside in a camouflage jacket using an accelerant to ignite a fire at Ferguson Market.
But St. Louis County police haven’t been able to confirm that Antonio Whiteside is the same man seen in the video starting fires.
The IBTimes reported:
A Missouri man has been charged with setting one of the fires that devastated Ferguson businesses during demonstrations over a grand jury’s decision not to indict a local police officer in the slaying of Michael Brown last summer. Antonio Whiteside, 26, was indicted Wednesday, charged with the arson of the Ferguson Market, a representative of the U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis told CNN.
Federal prosecutors alleged Whiteside was seen in surveillance camera footage attired in a camouflage jacket and using an accelerant to light the market on fire in November. Police arrested Whiteside in January, CNN reported.
More than two dozen buildings — including the Ferguson Market — were set ablaze in the St. Louis suburb after a grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, who shot and killed Brown, a black teenager, last August. The market has continued to operate despite suffering damage, CNN said.
Investigators have been working to find those responsible for the fires and riots in Ferguson that punctuated peaceful protests and destroyed businesses in November. Twenty-six fires were lit after the grand jury’s controversial decision, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Investigators are searching for Whiteside. He is not in custody.
