June 22, 2021 • 42 mins
Melissa's backstory at the origins of Black Lives Matter is explored. A shocking revelation about the lead detective in Danyé's case is unearthed.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
https://www.doubleasteriskmedia.com/
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/DoubleAsterisk
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Content warning. This podcast discusses violence, murder, suicide, civil unrest,
aggressive policing, racism, and lynching. If you or anyone you
know is considering suicide, her self harm, or just need
to talk about problems, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline at one hundred two seven three eight two five five,
(00:25):
or text the Crisis text line at seven four one
seven four one. Previously and after the uprising, on October seventeenth,
she found Dana hanging from this tree in their backyard.
I call nine one one and all I remember screaming,
is my baby delivered? Right? So you know easy, let's
(00:47):
take pictures. And that's why Melissa mckinnis wants St. Louis
County police to dig deeper. All signs right on the
bad point that this was a suicide. We know what
the fact of the case are, so we we never
are ever going to go out there and say, well,
you know, Dania mam is wrong. Mckinne's a prominent Ferguson activists,
told me she thinks her family is being targeted. The
lead detective in the case, he was laughing. It was
(01:10):
more like we were wasting his time. Like he asked
somewhere to be, almost as if my son was Indeed,
did you get the impression you knew who you were? Yes?
(01:37):
What you're looking at is the aftermath of the grand
jury deciding not to indict Officer Wilson. A young man
found hanging from a tree in October. His mom believes
someone murdered her son, targeting him. Danye became an activist
(02:03):
in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown
by a white police officer. That's why Melissa mckinne's wants St.
Louis County police to dig deeper to her son's death.
He was not suicidal. This is after the uprising, the
death of Donye Dion Jones. It's a new era at
(02:30):
the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office. For the first time
in almost thirty years, someone other than Bob McCullough is
calling the shots. Bib in your size. Rachel Mentof is
live in Clayton, where Wesley Bell took the oath of
office today on January one, right around the time our
burner phone was arriving with Melissa. Wesley Bell was sworn
(02:51):
in as the first black prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County,
unseating the longtime incumbent Bob McCullough, whoa Missley refused to
indict officer Darren Wilson for killing Mike Brown Jr. It'd
after me, Hi, Hi, state your name. Wesley Bell, a
criminal justice reform advocate, experienced defense attorney, and former Ferguson
(03:15):
City counselor who got into politics after the Michael Brown
shooting and protests. Bell says he promises to give everyone
a fair shake. Right before Bell was sworn in, the
prosecuting attorneys and investigators and what would be his office
voted to join the police union. It seemed like a
massive conflict of interest. Bell, having just been elected on
(03:38):
a promise of criminal justice reform, would now have to
operate with a staff that itself was in league with
the police. If the residents of St. Louis County were
hopeful that Bell's elections signaled that a new dawn of
police accountability was on the horizon, this wasn't a good sign.
Everything that I do is to make sure this count
(04:00):
he stays safe, to make sure that everyone gets a
fair shape. And as long as I hold this office
that I promise you that promise I will keep. One
of the claims that was repeated in the media about
Danye's death was that Melissa believed it could be related
to her activism in Ferguson. So we have to go
(04:22):
back here, back to the end of summer when Mike
Brown Jr. Was killed on Canfield Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri,
on that hot August afternoon. Residents quickly filled the streets
in response to the killing and subsequent leaving of the
eighteen year old's body in the street for hours. Pockets
of neighbors who intended to stay out on the streets
(04:43):
through the night, maybe through many nights, began talking. One
group of young people, full of passion and a desire
to see things change, came to calling themselves Lost Voices.
We are we are. So this is your test, Yeah,
this is this is where I sleep. Here is Leonard
(05:04):
Smith showing a news crew the Lost Voices tent encamp.
And so the first night you actually didn't have a tent,
would you sleep on the first night, the first night
that I spent the night actually stepping a chair just
kind of nodded away. It was night at the night
at the night, not near one of us knowing who
each other was. This is Dante Carter. You heard him
(05:25):
in episode one talking about the news that somebody left
in their camp at the night we was coming out
her protests, playing a simple We don't we never been
to protests before. But it's like everything worked, is like
some magical way, like I'll drawing us all the fans
for this one spot. Though most of the members of
(05:46):
Lost Voices were in their late teens and early twenties,
a few grown adults joined with them. One of them
was Melissa. I know why I became in those voices
because we were more out there. I can see they
will trouble, to be honest, I wouldn't want my children
hanging around with him, but I love their fight. I
(06:09):
saw that the amount of work that they put in,
of not going in the house, being out there night
and day, having a set march, a set shut down
of the streets, sleeping, intense stuff like that. We were
more radical. One of the members of Lost Voices, Joshua Williams,
(06:30):
remembers the police being immediately hostile towards activists every night
he was out there day, was out there pointing guns
and stuff. And he had office three steps out there,
you know, calling people. Joshua's mother told him that if
he joined in the protests for Mike Brown not to
(06:52):
bother coming home, my amount to me going out there,
Joe it if I go ahead, they don't find to
come home. So and he stayed with me out there.
So he found people in the movement to stay with,
including Melissa, who became a surrogate mother to Joshua. We
(07:16):
thought that he was a runaway, but we just couldn't
find out where he was supposed to be because he
told us so many different stories. We don't have to
pitch in and get them shoes and clothes and coats
and stuff like that. But he was he was really
into it. You can tell that his heart was in
in the fight. My family would tell you I've always
(07:37):
had my door open for kids to come and stay
with me because they were all in lost voices together.
Joshua also knew Donya, so we asked Joshua to tell
us about I met him, do Melissa, I can't her
my mom. He's he's cool. Uh. He helped me to
get tho some some some night. You know. He's outgoing person,
(08:02):
very smart and intelligence. When you first met him. Was
he out in the streets with everybody too, and he's
out there with us. He always stayed by his mound
though one night is night ver hectic night and tick
as all little places to old lady was stuck in
the vel charity and uh, he can't out of nowhere.
(08:24):
He pushed to d after me. After after jack Ass,
we asked Joshua what his initial reaction was to hearing
that Donia had passed away. I was shocking because he
he got like going for himself, you know, so I
think you've somebody else where. My initial thought was he
(08:47):
didn't doing you know, That's what Initia thought. And he
deal is lost Voices was the heart and soul of
the resistance. You can't talk about Ferguson without talking about
(09:09):
the lost voices. And that's just a real that's just real,
real talk. This is tough po Melissa's activist rapper cousin,
who we spoke with an episode one. The thing with
Melissa is she's not a St. Louis transplant. She didn't
move here from another city and all of a sudden
become a political activist when you're when you're there every day,
(09:30):
day in and day out. You're sitting in it when
it's not a hot topic. You're sitting in it when
somebody goes to jail and it's not an explosive issue
on the internet. When you get pulled over and the
cop remembers you from yelling at him five years ago,
and somebody you were with might have spit on the cop.
You don't dodge that you don't have You're not at
the conferences drinking latte's with the people you would just
(09:51):
twitter beefrom with last week. You know, like you're not
on the cover of Essence but doing t actively ship.
You're actually in the community dealing with real issue, real problems.
What I remember about the Lost Voices early on is
the nonprofit side of the movement knew that they couldn't
really control them. You know, like you could will somebody
(10:11):
else in and be like, hey, these are the talking
points in case you want to do media, you could
do this, You could do that. Lost Voices was so
authentic that you really couldn't get them to tap into
none of that. It was just real talk, real energy,
and people who had nothing to loose. We all lost voices.
There would be no focusing movements weeks after the major
(10:34):
protests had died down, members of Lost Voices were still
marching and still camping out in the streets. The Lost
Voices have changed location several times. Right now they're at
the back of this vacant parking lot. And what's significant
about their location is there just a few blocks from
where Mike Brown was killed, and this is the road
where thousands of protesters were marching just a few weeks ago.
(10:56):
Most members of Lost Voices were men, but there were
a few women, including founding member Cheyenne Green. Here she
is speaking at a rally in October. Hi, my name Cheyenne.
I'm with um the Lost Voices. We've been on ground
zero in Ferguson for sixty four days, sleeping in the streets,
(11:17):
keeping our presents, and I want to get this started
by channing black lives matter, Black lives matter, Black lives matter,
Black lives Matter. We spoke with Cheyenne about those days
and nights working with the Lost Voices. Whenever we uh
(11:41):
stayed out. On our first night, we just talked all night.
We didn't have anything to sleep on anything like that.
We just talked all night about all of our ideas,
what we wanted to do. We didn't know what activism
was there anything. And as the days went along, um
people started to bring pen food every day, Um, just
every then you can think of one. In week we
(12:02):
occupied occupied on three different locations onwards forment. But after
the third time of our camp site being invaded by
the police, everybody just had went back because their home
lost voices. Activists were trying to maintain a permanent presence
on West Florison until the announcement about whether or not
Darren Wilson would be indicted. Ferguson police were not going
(12:25):
to make it easy. Here's Melissa. They took up the
tents through them in the street and they said, you
better be careful. Bet, don't choose your battles win you.
You're playing a dangerous game, daily game loaded up in
trucks all of our property. Is that legal? Is that
(12:48):
legal for them to touch our things and put it up?
How can they just grab our stuff and put it
on trucks to say I'm taking it the funk is that?
Ain't nobody stupid that trying to scare him? Moufunk will
be on the street stand it, But I bet we'd
still be out here This is audio from a cell
phone video shot by Cheyenne. In the video, the activists
(13:09):
have about eight to ten tents in a parking lot,
and they are surrounded by city workers who are preparing
to cart away all of their belongings. Police are protecting
the city workers, telling them to load them up, load
them up. Only a few Lost Voices members are present,
and there's also a small girl there, maybe five or
six years old. She's carrying a doll. Y'all gotta give
(13:31):
us a second. Y'all gotta expect us the grab nothing
that quick. He let her go, Let her go. There
is a young woman in a red sweatshirt. Two police
officers are grabbing at her arms. Let a second young
woman abby approached the arresting officers very calmly, seemingly trying
(13:57):
to talk them out of arresting her friend when she
too was grabbed and arrested. Why I'm not all recording,
I have the all life the recording. A large male
officer has the small woman in a reverse headlock. He
holds her this way while another large male officer puts
(14:17):
her in handcuffs. She isn't offering any resistance. Look, I'm
raving a barnet at a choll post raving a barnet.
It's okay, don't look at this, Yeah, can I take
her back? Why would yall lock her up? She ain't
doing nothing? Why? Oh my gosh. Chyenne is asking why
(14:37):
the second young woman, Abby was being arrested for having
done nothing. When her attention shifts to the two officers
who are carrying away the woman in the red sweatshirt
by lifting her off of the ground by her handcuffed
hands and her feet. She looks hog tied. Why why,
why the fund are you grabbing her life? An animals
(14:59):
not fucking crazy? Crazy or not a loading a tent.
You need to leave, leave now or you will be
placed under the role. Their small tent occupations were violently dismantled,
their belongings thrown into city trailers, while police arrested two
young women for daring to question them. Lost voices. Members
(15:21):
returned to their homes, but stayed in contact and stayed active.
The local police, however, did not let up well for
the Darren Wilson no indictment thing. Um, we were getting
ready for it, so we had a safety meeting was
at the church. There was this guy named Chris Schaeffer.
He was supposed to be a live streamer. We told
(15:43):
everyone there will be no live streaming, no recording of
any kind, no devices, you know, for safety reasons, you know.
So I turned around and I see the guy Chris Schaeffer.
He asked, you know this guy before that never not
nobody's ever seen his game. So um, I turned around
(16:05):
and say, listen, did you not even what we just said?
He said no, I didn't hear you. I said, no livestreaming,
no recording, no recording devices at all. He said, oh, well,
all right, and so he put it down. So then
he took he took it back out, but I couldn't
(16:26):
see what he was doing with his phone. So I
told his friend, this is your friend, tell him that
he came be doing this. So she told him, So
this time I moved. I moved like five pews up.
So then like all of a sudden, I turned around
and he's recording again, sitting right behind me, something like dude,
(16:50):
you know. And but the meeting started already, So I
stood up and I said, the phone is off the hook.
That's like cold for stopped the meeting. Someone's listening. So
this other man just ran and grabbed Chris. Sha friend
picked them up and threw him in the middle of
the out. I was like, damn, I'm like, oh wait, wait,
(17:11):
wait wait. By the time, like the guy ran over
and they started dragging Chris out of the church. So
then finally probably like five teen minutes later, I went out.
They was like, yeah, we got this phone. I'm taking
it to the pawn shop and all that. And I
see Chris running up the street. I said, y'all serious.
I said, so y'all think that we are here to
(17:34):
do this. He said, man, look, I'm gonna take his
phone take to the pawn shop. I said, now, you're not.
And so with my organization, they knew not to mess
with us, you know, So it's what we said. I
said now, and the guy gave the phone. We got
in the car and we drove up the street to
find Chris. Well, we were looking and we saw to
(17:54):
the right there's a waterings and we saw Heather's fan.
So we pulled up and saying, this is um your
friend's phone. She said, okay, they're taking him to the hospital.
I said, can you make sure you get his phone.
All of a sudden, I see a video with his
phone the huge did I get you a mack tell
(18:17):
his story? Hi, this is student. I didn't go to
the father protests tonight in Ferguson, but I went to
a meeting and I did get beat up. I was
not live streaming at this meeting at all. I got
hurt tonight. Somebody thought I was you know, maybe they
thought I was a cop where they thought that I
(18:39):
was live streaming something that shouldn't have been live stream.
I'm in the hospital right now. I'm in the emergency room.
Had to get an X ray, I had to get
um head scan. Well, it's probably live. A few days later,
two week later, I found out they had one out
for my ram and like some other people. Now the
(19:05):
other people actually they did with his ass, but they
just throw me in there for extra you know what
I'm saying, Like, Yeah, we can get the whole organization
and shut them down. Were the people who actually did
toss him out? Are they part of your organization or
they just a few of them. But the one who
actually tossed them out, we don't know who. We didn't
(19:26):
know who this guy was to actually initially did it,
you know, And since they didn't, some of them didn't
have money to fight. They were eithern facing jail time
or probation, so they picked probation. So with when that
got caught, Um, did you know you had to warn out?
I thought you knew it was out. Yeah, they told me.
(19:47):
It was like everybody was like, Melissa, just wait, you'll
need to be out there like that, and I was like, nah,
I said, if they catch me, they catch me, I'm
know how to do it. To pull this all back in.
Melissa was at an activist meeting when a young man,
Chris Shaefer, who was not known to most people in attendance,
was seemingly live streaming or using his phone. When everyone
(20:07):
had been asked to keep their devices put away. Melissa
alerted the room, and a larger man who no one
in her organization knew, ran over and ripped Chris from
his seat and yanked him outside. Others followed, and Chris
was beaten up. When Melissa went outside to see what
was happening, someone had stolen Chris's phone with the intention
of selling it. Melissa told this person absolutely not, and
(20:31):
she was able to collect Chris's phone and find his friend,
Heather up the block, to whom she returned the phone.
Chris had his phone back that night and used it
to live stream himself from his hospital bed. Melissa was
charged with robbery for her efforts and was arrested later
at the St. Louis Donald Trump rally for her outstanding
warrant in this case. They ended up putting me on
(20:55):
the suicide watch. Yeah, they wouldn't give me my medication.
No one that I have an illness. They talked to
my doctors, they said they was giving my medication and
they getting Yeah, and what were the actual charges? Like?
It was fell strong oarm robbery and a strong owned
(21:18):
robbery and assault. Several of her activist friends were also charged,
and she believes this was a way to stifle the movement.
With people taking plea deals of probation, they would be
much more hesitant to engage in street demonstrations. How did
it resolve? Did you were just acquitted because it went
(21:38):
out for so long and they had no root, you know,
but they did have proof that I was the one
that gave him his phone. We wanted to know how.
The St. Louis County Police came up with the five names,
including Melissa's, of people whom they determined to charge with
assaulting and robbing Chris Shaeffer. Did he give them those names? Unfortunately,
(21:59):
we haven't been able to speak with Chris himself for comment,
but we did connect with one of his ex girlfriends.
He was dating a young woman at the time of
the incident at the church. She didn't want to be
named or to have her voice in our podcast, so
we have to just give a brief summary of what
she told us. Chris was a student who had a
(22:20):
new interest in journalism. It wasn't so much an activist,
but he wanted to try his hand at reporting live
from the large protests that had been rising in St.
Louis the night he got beaten up. She says he
wasn't live streaming because she was checking his feed, but
he was texting with her, which may have been what
caused the confusion. Interestingly, she told us that when Chris
(22:42):
got out of the hospital, the police asked him to
come in and to look at photographs from which to
identify his attackers. His ex girlfriend says that she went
down to the police station with him, but that he
refused to identify anybody as they passed pictures before him.
She says Chris would just say I don't remember. I
don't remember. I don't remember, She says. Chris felt the
(23:05):
incident wasn't worth ruining anyone's life over. We can't help
but wonder what photographs the police were showing to Chris,
where they come from, and why they've been selected. If
what his ex girlfriend says it is true, Chris never
pointed anyone out and didn't seem interested in cooperating with
the case, Why then did St. Louis County pursue charges
(23:26):
against five people, including Melissa, who spent time in jail
mysteriously on suicide Watch. No less, Melissa spent time and
money preparing to fight the charges in court and had
to avoid violating the terms of her bail by further protesting.
I went to court on my trial day. It was
(23:46):
actually Dianee oh, and my turn came on. Oh, you see,
you're free to go. He was like drop and you
know in a video you can see my reaction and
that's when I hugg Danyane, and Danyane was like, you know, mom,
that's now you can fully go on with you know everything,
(24:09):
you know. I was like this apparent attempt by St.
Louis County police to squash Melissa's activities by ensnaring her
in a court case. Threatening her with felony charges in
over a decade in jail would of course diminish what
little faith she may still have had in local law enforcement.
But at the very end of that faithful year, something
(24:33):
would happen to destroy that faith entirely. I popped my
car some ways from where Antonio Martin was killed. So
I walked and made my way through the crowd, and
then there was a line of police. Late in the
night on December, a young black man named Antonio Martin
(24:56):
was shot and killed at a mobile gas station in
the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley. It didn't take long
for word to spread among the activist community, and Melissa
quickly joined the growing crowd at the mobile gas station
with Danja by her side. If anybody ever came close
to and like pushing me, Danya would make sure to
pull me out the way. So acted sort of like
(25:18):
your personal bodyguard were out there. Yeah, he didn't talk
too much. He wanted to show to He kind of
make people think that he was like tough. You know,
something went off, it caused an explosion, and then I
remember them jumping on Cat. Paul and Bruce Cap Kennedy,
Paul Mohammed, and Bruce Franks Jr. Were all members of
(25:41):
a group called the Peacekeepers that formed after the police
raided the Lost Voices tent encampments. The Peacekeepers were trained
in de escalation tactics and would go to protest to
stand as a buffer between the police and members of
the community. They wore shirts that in large white letters
spelled out Peacekeeper. This is how Cap Kennedy remembers that night.
(26:03):
But on that particularly we were attacked by the police.
The cop came and attacked me. First. I was standing
in place like I didn't even do anything for the
cop to agitate. He just walked up and before you know,
he had his hands around my neck. Somebody had threw
something as a little like a cracker ound flags banging something.
(26:28):
As Cap was being grabbed by an officer, a second
piece Keeper Bruce Franks reached out to hold onto Cap
and they fell over. Somehow. I was tied up with
Bruce and I could feel the community people trying to
pull me away, and the policy just fought a spraying
based everywhere. It was stomping and hitting and spraying everybody.
(26:57):
Once on the ground, police officers pile don Bruce and
began kicking him, striking him with batons, macing him, and
bending his fingers, all the while Bruce screamed, I'm not fighting,
I'm not fighting. Joshua Williams is close friends with Bruce
(27:19):
Frank's and he was there that night at the mobile
station watching his police violently assaulted Bruce. He's had a
buddy to me, so I was, you know, the banqueen,
and they got crazy and don't win in over that
mat a quick chip, don't have a long with him
and um at that time they booked Glad and I've
(27:44):
been in there take home iron. They put it out
with some type of milk. Angry at watching his friend
Bruce get piled on and beaten by police, Joshua had
gone across the street to a quick Trip gas station
and started a small fire that was quickly doused and
never actually caught. Meanwhile, back at the mobile gas station,
(28:13):
This audio comes from a police body camera from that night.
It was made public years later when Bruce sued the St.
Louis County Police Department, as well as a handful of
specific officers for assaulting him. At that protest. Contained within
the video is not just the assault, but some friendly
banter between police officers after the fact. The audio can
(28:35):
be hard to make out, so you have to listen closely. First,
we hear the officer whose body cam this audio came from,
telling another cop that he went through a whole can
of mace, and just as he says this, a woman
in the crowd is complaining to another officer about him,
pointing him out, saying him right there holding the mace.
(28:58):
She is yelling that she caught him on filmmacing people
who were already subdued, and the bodycam wearing officer then
moves far behind the police line and tells another cop
that a white bitch caught me spraying everyone, So he's
going to hide back here for a little bit, one
(29:21):
of the white food. It's just got me to slade
everybody here for a little bit. The bodycam wearing officer
actually goes on to complain that the gas station is
a bad place to be fighting people because it's too
well lit. Yeah, this was a terrible place for fighting out.
(29:45):
Then the footage cuts to the bodycam wearing officer speaking
with another cop who asks him, did you get any
stick time, get any But who about all made? Yeah,
I went the whole cam made. The officer wearing the
body camera is Timothy Anderer. At the time of this
(30:08):
incident in late December, he seems to have been a
regular patrol officer. He would be promoted to detective though
within a month, so either the department higher ups had
already decided to promote andrew Or to detective by December
when he's on film bragging about using excessive force against protesters,
(30:28):
and this misconduct didn't change their minds, or it was
a decision that they made after the night in question.
Either way, his promotion would seem to signal the St.
Louis County Police Department's attitude towards the public at large,
but especially the black population that had the temerity to
take to the streets to call for police accountability. The
(30:50):
release of Officer Andrew's body camera footage from the Christmas
Eve protests didn't happen until November, so when Detective and
Or showed up at Melissa's house with a fresh black
eye on the morning of Donna's death, she had no
idea who he was or what he'd been caught doing,
and bragging about Yeah, not to know that that officers
(31:14):
will be sending in my living room on ox over
set a team because if I would have known that
that was him, he wouldn't be sitting in my living
I would have told them I need somebody else here.
Timothy Andrewer was promoted to detective after brutalizing Bruce Frank's actions,
which Bruce sued both Andrewer and the St. Louis County
(31:36):
Police over On the flip side, Joshua Williams is still
in prison for his actions that night at the gas station.
A news team had filmed the scene and turned over
their footage to police, who were able to identify Joshua
despite having no previous police record and despite the fire
having quickly been doused before causing any damage. Joshua is
(31:57):
currently serving an eight year prison sent for the arson,
along with charges of burglary and stealing. How much time
did the prosecutor first ask for? You know, after josh
had came from the quick trip, he had jumped in
(32:18):
my back seat. He smelled like gasoline or something, you know,
and the rest of them they were trying to get
in my car, and it was like Melissa popped the
trunk and I was like, pop the trunk for what?
And he's like, we have some liquor. I said, where
you get that from? And these were the youngs where
you get that from? And Josse I got something too.
(32:42):
I said, get the hell out of my car. I said,
you know better, I said, get that ship out of
my car. And I was yelling at them and they
had to go find another ride. But I kind of
wish that I got a hold to Josh that night
and talked to him. So I kind of felt that
(33:03):
I didn't hold on a little bit tight at him.
After that good year or two, there was no more
lassbl to do. I think together, this is Cheyenne again.
She explained that after all of the arrests and harassment
from the police, members have lost voices went their separate ways,
(33:24):
so many did stay active. Both Cheyenne and Melissa were
among those who organized the large and impactful Jason Stockley
protests in Cheyenne. Also got involved in conventional politics, so
my accidents of my back Morris of Polity, working directing
with um Wesley Bell, who was defan convinced Bob mccaulla.
(33:45):
After twenty eight year starting to compcuted, and now we
have for the first time the black thing was coxecuted.
Wesley Bell's path to County prosecutor began in the first
major election after the uprising, when Bell was elected to
the Ferguson City Council. The next election also saw the
beaten and maced peacekeeper Bruce Franks Jr. Win election to
(34:06):
the Missouri General Assembly. These political achievements, which received a
great deal of media attention, took place against a less
noticed reality, the disintegration of Lost Voices and other Ferguson
frontline groups and many activists carrying not only legal charges
and fines, but significant trauma as well. And you know,
(34:29):
I used to try to help a lout of those guys,
you know, because they were basically street dudes that beforehand
wasn't doing anything notable or worthy of news, you know,
And when this happened, they became heroes overnight because of
the embrazing. This is Jamie Dennis. He is the director
of the Save Our Sons program at the Urban League
(34:50):
in St. Louis. His office is in a career center
that was constructed on the site of the Quick Trip
that was burned down in Ferguson during the uprising. We
asked Jamie for ten minutes of his time and he
gave us two hours. As he showed us around the
career center, people kept coming up to him, thanking him,
hugging him, or just saying what's up. Every person from
(35:12):
Lost Voices or the wider Ferguson movement that we would
ask him about he knew also he has Melissa's cousin
through marriage. We asked him about Melissa, about done, about
the police, about the uprising, about everything. This was the
place that launched this national movement, right, but then a
(35:35):
very few set of people became prominent, national recognizable voices.
And meanwhile folks like let's say Lost Voices that were
down camping the street, I feel maybe a little left behind,
feel slighter. And that's a whole different group of the
Front of Life protests that feel slighted, and they know
you feel like Lost Boys was a significant for it
(35:57):
as they were. So you find all these friend groups.
Is gonna tell you these different stories from what you're hearing,
from what you've seen. Have the police in this county
internalized the lessons that they should have internalized hafter they
reformed yeah, I think it's think in a better direction.
They are in small, small moments. But no, you got
(36:18):
Kim Garland, you got Wesley Bell, who are more pro citizen,
and you have the cops feeling like apprehensive because they
feel like we don't appreciate law enforcement here. Therefore, it
has an adverse effect of certain cops not being this
division when it comes to straight up and down police work.
(36:38):
So that's the backlash, you know, after what happened. Okay,
we can't flag you, we can't um arrest you and
beat you up, or can't hold you up in court,
and you know, take your license and stuff like that.
So hell, we'll let somebody shoot you. We'll wait till
the body is actually on the ground before we show up,
or you know, we'll let your house burn. So that's
(37:01):
interesting that you said that because one of the things
we're looking at with the death of Done, like the
morning when Saintman's County police showed up. According to Melissa
and her whole family, honestly, they didn't get the feeling
that any of the cops were taking it terribly seriously,
and there was sort of a just a general tone
of disrespect at several levels and do you think that
(37:24):
has a relation to this, this whole attitude of like,
well you didn't like the police, well now you need us,
Well too, too bad. It's backlash. Absolutely, I agree a
thousand percent that that's what's going on. But at the
same respect, with my cousin Melissa, you gotta understand that
this is such a touchy case that this put a
riff in our own family to where certain family members
(37:46):
don't talk to Melissa. Uh, certain family members feel like
it's more to it that she's not saying. So, you know,
I love Melissa, got big love for Melissa. I've always
been supportive. But she went into a dark sin us
and rightfully so, losing her child, and it became to
a point where people were abandoning her. I think the
(38:07):
Ferguson movement that she was a part of didn't support her,
you know, the way they could have. I see Melissa
a lot doing to Jason Stockley verdict because she was
a red form that was before dj but after that happened,
you know, and then she what do you mean she
was in red form? Can you tell me more about her?
Red form man volcanic dynamic, you know, fearless, lying, that
(38:29):
out there on the front line better than some of
these guys out here. Man, these girls to give me chills.
I'm telling you, the fergus in front line protesters was
really the girls. It was really the girls. I ain't
worried about lost voice and all that stuff they were
doing that show off for the girls. You said your
family had division in it only this issue. Do you
think that's gonna remain or do you think you're with
(38:50):
time that will sort of settle down and you guys
will be able to kind of come back together. I
can't see it. I can't see Melissa getting over it,
you know, because it's so heavy. It's like, you know,
I've seen family members whole grudges for lesser things than this,
so death that usually puts permanent wages and families. Man,
(39:13):
especially when it's like this, where people are like, oh,
I think he might have committed suicide, or I think
that is this and you's just looking for attention because
of this, so many unsensible things have been said to
this girl. Perhaps it's easy from the outside to think
that it's paranoid not to trust the police. It leads
(39:33):
for people who have had the privilege of not having
to deal with the police on a regular basis. Whatever
your stance on the police as though it's undeniable, that's
standing up to them as an institution, telling them that
they aren't doing their jobs, writer that they need to
face heavier consequences, and that maybe they shouldn't exist at all.
(39:54):
He isn't gonna make you any friends on the force.
If you had been hassled and harassed every time you
tried you engage in a constitutionally protected activity, If you
watched your friends get arrested for nothing, I'll just standing
on the street. If your fellow activists were pulled over
by streams of cops who threatened them and who added
guns at them. Someone you cared for like a son
(40:18):
was given an eight year sentence for a crime that
hurt no one, and you yourself were charged with a
felony and faced fifteen years in prison for briefly holding
a white man's cell phone as you attempted to return
it to him, when even that man refused to name
you as a suspect. How much faith would you have
in the police. And then all of this, all of
(40:40):
it has to be stacked on top of a life
lived in Ferguson in North St. Louis County. How much
faith would you have if, after all that the detective
who showed up to your house to help you figure
out what happened to your dead son was being sued
for beating and macing someone that you knew right and
for one of you. If all of this could completely
(41:03):
diminish a person's faith in the police, what would it
take to lose faith and another government entity, the one
tasked with determining a person's cause of death. That's next
time and after the Uprising. After the Uprising is directed, produced, investigated,
(41:26):
written and reported by myself, Raino the shell Ski and
John Duffy. John Duffy was also the editor. Dave Cassidy
was producer, sound engineering, design and mixed by Josh Condon.
Executive producers were Matt McDonough and Tina x Ros for
Now This, Brett Kushner for Group nine Media, and Jess
Borave was executive in charge of production. Jonathan Hartwig and
Bradley Rayford were consulting producers. Eliza Craig was assistant producer
(41:47):
and did additional reporting. Mallory Keenoy was a writer's assistant.
Kristin mcvickor and Taya Wilson were production assistants and Hailey
Klesmer was a post production assistant. Fact checking by Alison Humes,
theme song and other music by zach Or Walter, legal
by Keith Sclar and Peter Yazi. Special thanks to Ann Frado,
Danny Gonzalez, Barbara Copple, Alex Lester, Bethan Macaluso, Emily Marinoff,
(42:09):
Ruth Vaka, and The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press.
After the Uprising is a production of Double asterisk I,
Heart Media and Now This in association with True Stories.
You can find us on Twitter and Facebook. If you
have useful information about the death of Danye Jones or
anything we've covered, please leave a message on our tip
line at three four seven six seven four seven four
zero one.
Content warning. This podcast discusses violence, murder, suicide, civil unrest,
aggressive policing, racism, and lynching. If you or anyone you
know is considering suicide, her self harm, or just need
to talk about problems, please call the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline at one hundred two seven three eight two five five,
(00:25):
or text the Crisis text line at seven four one
seven four one. Previously and after the uprising, on October seventeenth,
she found Dana hanging from this tree in their backyard.
I call nine one one and all I remember screaming,
is my baby delivered? Right? So you know easy, let's
(00:47):
take pictures. And that's why Melissa mckinnis wants St. Louis
County police to dig deeper. All signs right on the
bad point that this was a suicide. We know what
the fact of the case are, so we we never
are ever going to go out there and say, well,
you know, Dania mam is wrong. Mckinne's a prominent Ferguson activists,
told me she thinks her family is being targeted. The
lead detective in the case, he was laughing. It was
(01:10):
more like we were wasting his time. Like he asked
somewhere to be, almost as if my son was Indeed,
did you get the impression you knew who you were? Yes?
(01:37):
What you're looking at is the aftermath of the grand
jury deciding not to indict Officer Wilson. A young man
found hanging from a tree in October. His mom believes
someone murdered her son, targeting him. Danye became an activist
(02:03):
in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown
by a white police officer. That's why Melissa mckinne's wants St.
Louis County police to dig deeper to her son's death.
He was not suicidal. This is after the uprising, the
death of Donye Dion Jones. It's a new era at
(02:30):
the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office. For the first time
in almost thirty years, someone other than Bob McCullough is
calling the shots. Bib in your size. Rachel Mentof is
live in Clayton, where Wesley Bell took the oath of
office today on January one, right around the time our
burner phone was arriving with Melissa. Wesley Bell was sworn
(02:51):
in as the first black prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County,
unseating the longtime incumbent Bob McCullough, whoa Missley refused to
indict officer Darren Wilson for killing Mike Brown Jr. It'd
after me, Hi, Hi, state your name. Wesley Bell, a
criminal justice reform advocate, experienced defense attorney, and former Ferguson
(03:15):
City counselor who got into politics after the Michael Brown
shooting and protests. Bell says he promises to give everyone
a fair shake. Right before Bell was sworn in, the
prosecuting attorneys and investigators and what would be his office
voted to join the police union. It seemed like a
massive conflict of interest. Bell, having just been elected on
(03:38):
a promise of criminal justice reform, would now have to
operate with a staff that itself was in league with
the police. If the residents of St. Louis County were
hopeful that Bell's elections signaled that a new dawn of
police accountability was on the horizon, this wasn't a good sign.
Everything that I do is to make sure this count
(04:00):
he stays safe, to make sure that everyone gets a
fair shape. And as long as I hold this office
that I promise you that promise I will keep. One
of the claims that was repeated in the media about
Danye's death was that Melissa believed it could be related
to her activism in Ferguson. So we have to go
(04:22):
back here, back to the end of summer when Mike
Brown Jr. Was killed on Canfield Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri,
on that hot August afternoon. Residents quickly filled the streets
in response to the killing and subsequent leaving of the
eighteen year old's body in the street for hours. Pockets
of neighbors who intended to stay out on the streets
(04:43):
through the night, maybe through many nights, began talking. One
group of young people, full of passion and a desire
to see things change, came to calling themselves Lost Voices.
We are we are. So this is your test, Yeah,
this is this is where I sleep. Here is Leonard
(05:04):
Smith showing a news crew the Lost Voices tent encamp.
And so the first night you actually didn't have a tent,
would you sleep on the first night, the first night
that I spent the night actually stepping a chair just
kind of nodded away. It was night at the night
at the night, not near one of us knowing who
each other was. This is Dante Carter. You heard him
(05:25):
in episode one talking about the news that somebody left
in their camp at the night we was coming out
her protests, playing a simple We don't we never been
to protests before. But it's like everything worked, is like
some magical way, like I'll drawing us all the fans
for this one spot. Though most of the members of
(05:46):
Lost Voices were in their late teens and early twenties,
a few grown adults joined with them. One of them
was Melissa. I know why I became in those voices
because we were more out there. I can see they
will trouble, to be honest, I wouldn't want my children
hanging around with him, but I love their fight. I
(06:09):
saw that the amount of work that they put in,
of not going in the house, being out there night
and day, having a set march, a set shut down
of the streets, sleeping, intense stuff like that. We were
more radical. One of the members of Lost Voices, Joshua Williams,
(06:30):
remembers the police being immediately hostile towards activists every night
he was out there day, was out there pointing guns
and stuff. And he had office three steps out there,
you know, calling people. Joshua's mother told him that if
he joined in the protests for Mike Brown not to
(06:52):
bother coming home, my amount to me going out there,
Joe it if I go ahead, they don't find to
come home. So and he stayed with me out there.
So he found people in the movement to stay with,
including Melissa, who became a surrogate mother to Joshua. We
(07:16):
thought that he was a runaway, but we just couldn't
find out where he was supposed to be because he
told us so many different stories. We don't have to
pitch in and get them shoes and clothes and coats
and stuff like that. But he was he was really
into it. You can tell that his heart was in
in the fight. My family would tell you I've always
(07:37):
had my door open for kids to come and stay
with me because they were all in lost voices together.
Joshua also knew Donya, so we asked Joshua to tell
us about I met him, do Melissa, I can't her
my mom. He's he's cool. Uh. He helped me to
get tho some some some night. You know. He's outgoing person,
(08:02):
very smart and intelligence. When you first met him. Was
he out in the streets with everybody too, and he's
out there with us. He always stayed by his mound
though one night is night ver hectic night and tick
as all little places to old lady was stuck in
the vel charity and uh, he can't out of nowhere.
(08:24):
He pushed to d after me. After after jack Ass,
we asked Joshua what his initial reaction was to hearing
that Donia had passed away. I was shocking because he
he got like going for himself, you know, so I
think you've somebody else where. My initial thought was he
(08:47):
didn't doing you know, That's what Initia thought. And he
deal is lost Voices was the heart and soul of
the resistance. You can't talk about Ferguson without talking about
(09:09):
the lost voices. And that's just a real that's just real,
real talk. This is tough po Melissa's activist rapper cousin,
who we spoke with an episode one. The thing with
Melissa is she's not a St. Louis transplant. She didn't
move here from another city and all of a sudden
become a political activist when you're when you're there every day,
(09:30):
day in and day out. You're sitting in it when
it's not a hot topic. You're sitting in it when
somebody goes to jail and it's not an explosive issue
on the internet. When you get pulled over and the
cop remembers you from yelling at him five years ago,
and somebody you were with might have spit on the cop.
You don't dodge that you don't have You're not at
the conferences drinking latte's with the people you would just
(09:51):
twitter beefrom with last week. You know, like you're not
on the cover of Essence but doing t actively ship.
You're actually in the community dealing with real issue, real problems.
What I remember about the Lost Voices early on is
the nonprofit side of the movement knew that they couldn't
really control them. You know, like you could will somebody
(10:11):
else in and be like, hey, these are the talking
points in case you want to do media, you could
do this, You could do that. Lost Voices was so
authentic that you really couldn't get them to tap into
none of that. It was just real talk, real energy,
and people who had nothing to loose. We all lost voices.
There would be no focusing movements weeks after the major
(10:34):
protests had died down, members of Lost Voices were still
marching and still camping out in the streets. The Lost
Voices have changed location several times. Right now they're at
the back of this vacant parking lot. And what's significant
about their location is there just a few blocks from
where Mike Brown was killed, and this is the road
where thousands of protesters were marching just a few weeks ago.
(10:56):
Most members of Lost Voices were men, but there were
a few women, including founding member Cheyenne Green. Here she
is speaking at a rally in October. Hi, my name Cheyenne.
I'm with um the Lost Voices. We've been on ground
zero in Ferguson for sixty four days, sleeping in the streets,
(11:17):
keeping our presents, and I want to get this started
by channing black lives matter, Black lives matter, Black lives matter,
Black lives Matter. We spoke with Cheyenne about those days
and nights working with the Lost Voices. Whenever we uh
(11:41):
stayed out. On our first night, we just talked all night.
We didn't have anything to sleep on anything like that.
We just talked all night about all of our ideas,
what we wanted to do. We didn't know what activism
was there anything. And as the days went along, um
people started to bring pen food every day, Um, just
every then you can think of one. In week we
(12:02):
occupied occupied on three different locations onwards forment. But after
the third time of our camp site being invaded by
the police, everybody just had went back because their home
lost voices. Activists were trying to maintain a permanent presence
on West Florison until the announcement about whether or not
Darren Wilson would be indicted. Ferguson police were not going
(12:25):
to make it easy. Here's Melissa. They took up the
tents through them in the street and they said, you
better be careful. Bet, don't choose your battles win you.
You're playing a dangerous game, daily game loaded up in
trucks all of our property. Is that legal? Is that
(12:48):
legal for them to touch our things and put it up?
How can they just grab our stuff and put it
on trucks to say I'm taking it the funk is that?
Ain't nobody stupid that trying to scare him? Moufunk will
be on the street stand it, But I bet we'd
still be out here This is audio from a cell
phone video shot by Cheyenne. In the video, the activists
(13:09):
have about eight to ten tents in a parking lot,
and they are surrounded by city workers who are preparing
to cart away all of their belongings. Police are protecting
the city workers, telling them to load them up, load
them up. Only a few Lost Voices members are present,
and there's also a small girl there, maybe five or
six years old. She's carrying a doll. Y'all gotta give
(13:31):
us a second. Y'all gotta expect us the grab nothing
that quick. He let her go, Let her go. There
is a young woman in a red sweatshirt. Two police
officers are grabbing at her arms. Let a second young
woman abby approached the arresting officers very calmly, seemingly trying
(13:57):
to talk them out of arresting her friend when she
too was grabbed and arrested. Why I'm not all recording,
I have the all life the recording. A large male
officer has the small woman in a reverse headlock. He
holds her this way while another large male officer puts
(14:17):
her in handcuffs. She isn't offering any resistance. Look, I'm
raving a barnet at a choll post raving a barnet.
It's okay, don't look at this, Yeah, can I take
her back? Why would yall lock her up? She ain't
doing nothing? Why? Oh my gosh. Chyenne is asking why
(14:37):
the second young woman, Abby was being arrested for having
done nothing. When her attention shifts to the two officers
who are carrying away the woman in the red sweatshirt
by lifting her off of the ground by her handcuffed
hands and her feet. She looks hog tied. Why why,
why the fund are you grabbing her life? An animals
(14:59):
not fucking crazy? Crazy or not a loading a tent.
You need to leave, leave now or you will be
placed under the role. Their small tent occupations were violently dismantled,
their belongings thrown into city trailers, while police arrested two
young women for daring to question them. Lost voices. Members
(15:21):
returned to their homes, but stayed in contact and stayed active.
The local police, however, did not let up well for
the Darren Wilson no indictment thing. Um, we were getting
ready for it, so we had a safety meeting was
at the church. There was this guy named Chris Schaeffer.
He was supposed to be a live streamer. We told
(15:43):
everyone there will be no live streaming, no recording of
any kind, no devices, you know, for safety reasons, you know.
So I turned around and I see the guy Chris Schaeffer.
He asked, you know this guy before that never not
nobody's ever seen his game. So um, I turned around
(16:05):
and say, listen, did you not even what we just said?
He said no, I didn't hear you. I said, no livestreaming,
no recording, no recording devices at all. He said, oh, well,
all right, and so he put it down. So then
he took he took it back out, but I couldn't
(16:26):
see what he was doing with his phone. So I
told his friend, this is your friend, tell him that
he came be doing this. So she told him, So
this time I moved. I moved like five pews up.
So then like all of a sudden, I turned around
and he's recording again, sitting right behind me, something like dude,
(16:50):
you know. And but the meeting started already, So I
stood up and I said, the phone is off the hook.
That's like cold for stopped the meeting. Someone's listening. So
this other man just ran and grabbed Chris. Sha friend
picked them up and threw him in the middle of
the out. I was like, damn, I'm like, oh wait, wait,
(17:11):
wait wait. By the time, like the guy ran over
and they started dragging Chris out of the church. So
then finally probably like five teen minutes later, I went out.
They was like, yeah, we got this phone. I'm taking
it to the pawn shop and all that. And I
see Chris running up the street. I said, y'all serious.
I said, so y'all think that we are here to
(17:34):
do this. He said, man, look, I'm gonna take his
phone take to the pawn shop. I said, now, you're not.
And so with my organization, they knew not to mess
with us, you know, So it's what we said. I
said now, and the guy gave the phone. We got
in the car and we drove up the street to
find Chris. Well, we were looking and we saw to
(17:54):
the right there's a waterings and we saw Heather's fan.
So we pulled up and saying, this is um your
friend's phone. She said, okay, they're taking him to the hospital.
I said, can you make sure you get his phone.
All of a sudden, I see a video with his
phone the huge did I get you a mack tell
(18:17):
his story? Hi, this is student. I didn't go to
the father protests tonight in Ferguson, but I went to
a meeting and I did get beat up. I was
not live streaming at this meeting at all. I got
hurt tonight. Somebody thought I was you know, maybe they
thought I was a cop where they thought that I
(18:39):
was live streaming something that shouldn't have been live stream.
I'm in the hospital right now. I'm in the emergency room.
Had to get an X ray, I had to get
um head scan. Well, it's probably live. A few days later,
two week later, I found out they had one out
for my ram and like some other people. Now the
(19:05):
other people actually they did with his ass, but they
just throw me in there for extra you know what
I'm saying, Like, Yeah, we can get the whole organization
and shut them down. Were the people who actually did
toss him out? Are they part of your organization or
they just a few of them. But the one who
actually tossed them out, we don't know who. We didn't
(19:26):
know who this guy was to actually initially did it,
you know, And since they didn't, some of them didn't
have money to fight. They were eithern facing jail time
or probation, so they picked probation. So with when that
got caught, Um, did you know you had to warn out?
I thought you knew it was out. Yeah, they told me.
(19:47):
It was like everybody was like, Melissa, just wait, you'll
need to be out there like that, and I was like, nah,
I said, if they catch me, they catch me, I'm
know how to do it. To pull this all back in.
Melissa was at an activist meeting when a young man,
Chris Shaefer, who was not known to most people in attendance,
was seemingly live streaming or using his phone. When everyone
(20:07):
had been asked to keep their devices put away. Melissa
alerted the room, and a larger man who no one
in her organization knew, ran over and ripped Chris from
his seat and yanked him outside. Others followed, and Chris
was beaten up. When Melissa went outside to see what
was happening, someone had stolen Chris's phone with the intention
of selling it. Melissa told this person absolutely not, and
(20:31):
she was able to collect Chris's phone and find his friend,
Heather up the block, to whom she returned the phone.
Chris had his phone back that night and used it
to live stream himself from his hospital bed. Melissa was
charged with robbery for her efforts and was arrested later
at the St. Louis Donald Trump rally for her outstanding
warrant in this case. They ended up putting me on
(20:55):
the suicide watch. Yeah, they wouldn't give me my medication.
No one that I have an illness. They talked to
my doctors, they said they was giving my medication and
they getting Yeah, and what were the actual charges? Like?
It was fell strong oarm robbery and a strong owned
(21:18):
robbery and assault. Several of her activist friends were also charged,
and she believes this was a way to stifle the movement.
With people taking plea deals of probation, they would be
much more hesitant to engage in street demonstrations. How did
it resolve? Did you were just acquitted because it went
(21:38):
out for so long and they had no root, you know,
but they did have proof that I was the one
that gave him his phone. We wanted to know how.
The St. Louis County Police came up with the five names,
including Melissa's, of people whom they determined to charge with
assaulting and robbing Chris Shaeffer. Did he give them those names? Unfortunately,
(21:59):
we haven't been able to speak with Chris himself for comment,
but we did connect with one of his ex girlfriends.
He was dating a young woman at the time of
the incident at the church. She didn't want to be
named or to have her voice in our podcast, so
we have to just give a brief summary of what
she told us. Chris was a student who had a
(22:20):
new interest in journalism. It wasn't so much an activist,
but he wanted to try his hand at reporting live
from the large protests that had been rising in St.
Louis the night he got beaten up. She says he
wasn't live streaming because she was checking his feed, but
he was texting with her, which may have been what
caused the confusion. Interestingly, she told us that when Chris
(22:42):
got out of the hospital, the police asked him to
come in and to look at photographs from which to
identify his attackers. His ex girlfriend says that she went
down to the police station with him, but that he
refused to identify anybody as they passed pictures before him.
She says Chris would just say I don't remember. I
don't remember. I don't remember, She says. Chris felt the
(23:05):
incident wasn't worth ruining anyone's life over. We can't help
but wonder what photographs the police were showing to Chris,
where they come from, and why they've been selected. If
what his ex girlfriend says it is true, Chris never
pointed anyone out and didn't seem interested in cooperating with
the case, Why then did St. Louis County pursue charges
(23:26):
against five people, including Melissa, who spent time in jail
mysteriously on suicide Watch. No less, Melissa spent time and
money preparing to fight the charges in court and had
to avoid violating the terms of her bail by further protesting.
I went to court on my trial day. It was
(23:46):
actually Dianee oh, and my turn came on. Oh, you see,
you're free to go. He was like drop and you
know in a video you can see my reaction and
that's when I hugg Danyane, and Danyane was like, you know, mom,
that's now you can fully go on with you know everything,
(24:09):
you know. I was like this apparent attempt by St.
Louis County police to squash Melissa's activities by ensnaring her
in a court case. Threatening her with felony charges in
over a decade in jail would of course diminish what
little faith she may still have had in local law enforcement.
But at the very end of that faithful year, something
(24:33):
would happen to destroy that faith entirely. I popped my
car some ways from where Antonio Martin was killed. So
I walked and made my way through the crowd, and
then there was a line of police. Late in the
night on December, a young black man named Antonio Martin
(24:56):
was shot and killed at a mobile gas station in
the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley. It didn't take long
for word to spread among the activist community, and Melissa
quickly joined the growing crowd at the mobile gas station
with Danja by her side. If anybody ever came close
to and like pushing me, Danya would make sure to
pull me out the way. So acted sort of like
(25:18):
your personal bodyguard were out there. Yeah, he didn't talk
too much. He wanted to show to He kind of
make people think that he was like tough. You know,
something went off, it caused an explosion, and then I
remember them jumping on Cat. Paul and Bruce Cap Kennedy,
Paul Mohammed, and Bruce Franks Jr. Were all members of
(25:41):
a group called the Peacekeepers that formed after the police
raided the Lost Voices tent encampments. The Peacekeepers were trained
in de escalation tactics and would go to protest to
stand as a buffer between the police and members of
the community. They wore shirts that in large white letters
spelled out Peacekeeper. This is how Cap Kennedy remembers that night.
(26:03):
But on that particularly we were attacked by the police.
The cop came and attacked me. First. I was standing
in place like I didn't even do anything for the
cop to agitate. He just walked up and before you know,
he had his hands around my neck. Somebody had threw
something as a little like a cracker ound flags banging something.
(26:28):
As Cap was being grabbed by an officer, a second
piece Keeper Bruce Franks reached out to hold onto Cap
and they fell over. Somehow. I was tied up with
Bruce and I could feel the community people trying to
pull me away, and the policy just fought a spraying
based everywhere. It was stomping and hitting and spraying everybody.
(26:57):
Once on the ground, police officers pile don Bruce and
began kicking him, striking him with batons, macing him, and
bending his fingers, all the while Bruce screamed, I'm not fighting,
I'm not fighting. Joshua Williams is close friends with Bruce
(27:19):
Frank's and he was there that night at the mobile
station watching his police violently assaulted Bruce. He's had a
buddy to me, so I was, you know, the banqueen,
and they got crazy and don't win in over that
mat a quick chip, don't have a long with him
and um at that time they booked Glad and I've
(27:44):
been in there take home iron. They put it out
with some type of milk. Angry at watching his friend
Bruce get piled on and beaten by police, Joshua had
gone across the street to a quick Trip gas station
and started a small fire that was quickly doused and
never actually caught. Meanwhile, back at the mobile gas station,
(28:13):
This audio comes from a police body camera from that night.
It was made public years later when Bruce sued the St.
Louis County Police Department, as well as a handful of
specific officers for assaulting him. At that protest. Contained within
the video is not just the assault, but some friendly
banter between police officers after the fact. The audio can
(28:35):
be hard to make out, so you have to listen closely. First,
we hear the officer whose body cam this audio came from,
telling another cop that he went through a whole can
of mace, and just as he says this, a woman
in the crowd is complaining to another officer about him,
pointing him out, saying him right there holding the mace.
(28:58):
She is yelling that she caught him on filmmacing people
who were already subdued, and the bodycam wearing officer then
moves far behind the police line and tells another cop
that a white bitch caught me spraying everyone, So he's
going to hide back here for a little bit, one
(29:21):
of the white food. It's just got me to slade
everybody here for a little bit. The bodycam wearing officer
actually goes on to complain that the gas station is
a bad place to be fighting people because it's too
well lit. Yeah, this was a terrible place for fighting out.
(29:45):
Then the footage cuts to the bodycam wearing officer speaking
with another cop who asks him, did you get any
stick time, get any But who about all made? Yeah,
I went the whole cam made. The officer wearing the
body camera is Timothy Anderer. At the time of this
(30:08):
incident in late December, he seems to have been a
regular patrol officer. He would be promoted to detective though
within a month, so either the department higher ups had
already decided to promote andrew Or to detective by December
when he's on film bragging about using excessive force against protesters,
(30:28):
and this misconduct didn't change their minds, or it was
a decision that they made after the night in question.
Either way, his promotion would seem to signal the St.
Louis County Police Department's attitude towards the public at large,
but especially the black population that had the temerity to
take to the streets to call for police accountability. The
(30:50):
release of Officer Andrew's body camera footage from the Christmas
Eve protests didn't happen until November, so when Detective and
Or showed up at Melissa's house with a fresh black
eye on the morning of Donna's death, she had no
idea who he was or what he'd been caught doing,
and bragging about Yeah, not to know that that officers
(31:14):
will be sending in my living room on ox over
set a team because if I would have known that
that was him, he wouldn't be sitting in my living
I would have told them I need somebody else here.
Timothy Andrewer was promoted to detective after brutalizing Bruce Frank's actions,
which Bruce sued both Andrewer and the St. Louis County
(31:36):
Police over On the flip side, Joshua Williams is still
in prison for his actions that night at the gas station.
A news team had filmed the scene and turned over
their footage to police, who were able to identify Joshua
despite having no previous police record and despite the fire
having quickly been doused before causing any damage. Joshua is
(31:57):
currently serving an eight year prison sent for the arson,
along with charges of burglary and stealing. How much time
did the prosecutor first ask for? You know, after josh
had came from the quick trip, he had jumped in
(32:18):
my back seat. He smelled like gasoline or something, you know,
and the rest of them they were trying to get
in my car, and it was like Melissa popped the
trunk and I was like, pop the trunk for what?
And he's like, we have some liquor. I said, where
you get that from? And these were the youngs where
you get that from? And Josse I got something too.
(32:42):
I said, get the hell out of my car. I said,
you know better, I said, get that ship out of
my car. And I was yelling at them and they
had to go find another ride. But I kind of
wish that I got a hold to Josh that night
and talked to him. So I kind of felt that
(33:03):
I didn't hold on a little bit tight at him.
After that good year or two, there was no more
lassbl to do. I think together, this is Cheyenne again.
She explained that after all of the arrests and harassment
from the police, members have lost voices went their separate ways,
(33:24):
so many did stay active. Both Cheyenne and Melissa were
among those who organized the large and impactful Jason Stockley
protests in Cheyenne. Also got involved in conventional politics, so
my accidents of my back Morris of Polity, working directing
with um Wesley Bell, who was defan convinced Bob mccaulla.
(33:45):
After twenty eight year starting to compcuted, and now we
have for the first time the black thing was coxecuted.
Wesley Bell's path to County prosecutor began in the first
major election after the uprising, when Bell was elected to
the Ferguson City Council. The next election also saw the
beaten and maced peacekeeper Bruce Franks Jr. Win election to
(34:06):
the Missouri General Assembly. These political achievements, which received a
great deal of media attention, took place against a less
noticed reality, the disintegration of Lost Voices and other Ferguson
frontline groups and many activists carrying not only legal charges
and fines, but significant trauma as well. And you know,
(34:29):
I used to try to help a lout of those guys,
you know, because they were basically street dudes that beforehand
wasn't doing anything notable or worthy of news, you know,
And when this happened, they became heroes overnight because of
the embrazing. This is Jamie Dennis. He is the director
of the Save Our Sons program at the Urban League
(34:50):
in St. Louis. His office is in a career center
that was constructed on the site of the Quick Trip
that was burned down in Ferguson during the uprising. We
asked Jamie for ten minutes of his time and he
gave us two hours. As he showed us around the
career center, people kept coming up to him, thanking him,
hugging him, or just saying what's up. Every person from
(35:12):
Lost Voices or the wider Ferguson movement that we would
ask him about he knew also he has Melissa's cousin
through marriage. We asked him about Melissa, about done, about
the police, about the uprising, about everything. This was the
place that launched this national movement, right, but then a
(35:35):
very few set of people became prominent, national recognizable voices.
And meanwhile folks like let's say Lost Voices that were
down camping the street, I feel maybe a little left behind,
feel slighter. And that's a whole different group of the
Front of Life protests that feel slighted, and they know
you feel like Lost Boys was a significant for it
(35:57):
as they were. So you find all these friend groups.
Is gonna tell you these different stories from what you're hearing,
from what you've seen. Have the police in this county
internalized the lessons that they should have internalized hafter they
reformed yeah, I think it's think in a better direction.
They are in small, small moments. But no, you got
(36:18):
Kim Garland, you got Wesley Bell, who are more pro citizen,
and you have the cops feeling like apprehensive because they
feel like we don't appreciate law enforcement here. Therefore, it
has an adverse effect of certain cops not being this
division when it comes to straight up and down police work.
(36:38):
So that's the backlash, you know, after what happened. Okay,
we can't flag you, we can't um arrest you and
beat you up, or can't hold you up in court,
and you know, take your license and stuff like that.
So hell, we'll let somebody shoot you. We'll wait till
the body is actually on the ground before we show up,
or you know, we'll let your house burn. So that's
(37:01):
interesting that you said that because one of the things
we're looking at with the death of Done, like the
morning when Saintman's County police showed up. According to Melissa
and her whole family, honestly, they didn't get the feeling
that any of the cops were taking it terribly seriously,
and there was sort of a just a general tone
of disrespect at several levels and do you think that
(37:24):
has a relation to this, this whole attitude of like,
well you didn't like the police, well now you need us,
Well too, too bad. It's backlash. Absolutely, I agree a
thousand percent that that's what's going on. But at the
same respect, with my cousin Melissa, you gotta understand that
this is such a touchy case that this put a
riff in our own family to where certain family members
(37:46):
don't talk to Melissa. Uh, certain family members feel like
it's more to it that she's not saying. So, you know,
I love Melissa, got big love for Melissa. I've always
been supportive. But she went into a dark sin us
and rightfully so, losing her child, and it became to
a point where people were abandoning her. I think the
(38:07):
Ferguson movement that she was a part of didn't support her,
you know, the way they could have. I see Melissa
a lot doing to Jason Stockley verdict because she was
a red form that was before dj but after that happened,
you know, and then she what do you mean she
was in red form? Can you tell me more about her?
Red form man volcanic dynamic, you know, fearless, lying, that
(38:29):
out there on the front line better than some of
these guys out here. Man, these girls to give me chills.
I'm telling you, the fergus in front line protesters was
really the girls. It was really the girls. I ain't
worried about lost voice and all that stuff they were
doing that show off for the girls. You said your
family had division in it only this issue. Do you
think that's gonna remain or do you think you're with
(38:50):
time that will sort of settle down and you guys
will be able to kind of come back together. I
can't see it. I can't see Melissa getting over it,
you know, because it's so heavy. It's like, you know,
I've seen family members whole grudges for lesser things than this,
so death that usually puts permanent wages and families. Man,
(39:13):
especially when it's like this, where people are like, oh,
I think he might have committed suicide, or I think
that is this and you's just looking for attention because
of this, so many unsensible things have been said to
this girl. Perhaps it's easy from the outside to think
that it's paranoid not to trust the police. It leads
(39:33):
for people who have had the privilege of not having
to deal with the police on a regular basis. Whatever
your stance on the police as though it's undeniable, that's
standing up to them as an institution, telling them that
they aren't doing their jobs, writer that they need to
face heavier consequences, and that maybe they shouldn't exist at all.
(39:54):
He isn't gonna make you any friends on the force.
If you had been hassled and harassed every time you
tried you engage in a constitutionally protected activity, If you
watched your friends get arrested for nothing, I'll just standing
on the street. If your fellow activists were pulled over
by streams of cops who threatened them and who added
guns at them. Someone you cared for like a son
(40:18):
was given an eight year sentence for a crime that
hurt no one, and you yourself were charged with a
felony and faced fifteen years in prison for briefly holding
a white man's cell phone as you attempted to return
it to him, when even that man refused to name
you as a suspect. How much faith would you have
in the police. And then all of this, all of
(40:40):
it has to be stacked on top of a life
lived in Ferguson in North St. Louis County. How much
faith would you have if, after all that the detective
who showed up to your house to help you figure
out what happened to your dead son was being sued
for beating and macing someone that you knew right and
for one of you. If all of this could completely
(41:03):
diminish a person's faith in the police, what would it
take to lose faith and another government entity, the one
tasked with determining a person's cause of death. That's next
time and after the Uprising. After the Uprising is directed, produced, investigated,
(41:26):
written and reported by myself, Raino the shell Ski and
John Duffy. John Duffy was also the editor. Dave Cassidy
was producer, sound engineering, design and mixed by Josh Condon.
Executive producers were Matt McDonough and Tina x Ros for
Now This, Brett Kushner for Group nine Media, and Jess
Borave was executive in charge of production. Jonathan Hartwig and
Bradley Rayford were consulting producers. Eliza Craig was assistant producer
(41:47):
and did additional reporting. Mallory Keenoy was a writer's assistant.
Kristin mcvickor and Taya Wilson were production assistants and Hailey
Klesmer was a post production assistant. Fact checking by Alison Humes,
theme song and other music by zach Or Walter, legal
by Keith Sclar and Peter Yazi. Special thanks to Ann Frado,
Danny Gonzalez, Barbara Copple, Alex Lester, Bethan Macaluso, Emily Marinoff,
(42:09):
Ruth Vaka, and The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press.
After the Uprising is a production of Double asterisk I,
Heart Media and Now This in association with True Stories.
You can find us on Twitter and Facebook. If you
have useful information about the death of Danye Jones or
anything we've covered, please leave a message on our tip
line at three four seven six seven four seven four
zero one.
Hosts And Creators
Ray Nowosielski
Maria Chappelle-Nadal
John Duffy
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.