A Black councilman defeated a seven-term prosecuting attorney, who made national news over the investigation surrounding the shooting death of Mike Brown in 2014, in the St. Louis County’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, TIME reports.
Wesley Bell, 43, won with 57 percent of the vote, while his opponent, Bob McCulloch, 67, received only 43 percent, per the election results.
According to TIME, there were no Republicans on the ballot, all but assuring that Bell will be declared St. Louis County’s lead prosecutor in November.
Bell was elected councilman in 2015 following continued protests over the killing of unarmed 18-year-old Brown by Officer Darren Wilson.
Brown was killed Aug. 9, 2014, during an altercation with Wilson, who’s White, in Ferguson, Missouri. Wilson claimed that Brown approached him aggressively resulting in him having to shoot Brown out of self-defense.
Witnesses have disputed the officer’s claims saying that Brown had his hands up in surrender. The phrase “hands up, don’t shoot!” stemmed from his death.
People accused McCulloch’s handling of the investigation saying that it was tilted in favor of the Wilson, who the St. Louis County grand jury chose not to indict.
“There’s too much divisiveness, too much division in this county, in this region,” Bell said in a Facebook video. “We’ve got to start bringing people together.”
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