FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) - A new Ferguson community group is pledging to work across racial and economic lines to help the community move forward following fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old black man by a white police officer.
KWMU-FM (http://bit.ly/1rSyGiI) reported that the group One Ferguson debuted Tuesday night during the public comment portion of the Ferguson City Council meeting. Its members include some of the same young protesters who've been among the city's biggest critics.
"While many groups have emerged to focus on Ferguson, you and I know if our community is truly going to heal and transform it will be up to us ... the Ferguson residents and other stakeholders to do the work," said group leader Adrienne Hawkins.
Loud protests have disrupted council meetings since Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9. But the tone Tuesday shifted with the emergence of One Ferguson, even as some speakers still called for Wilson's arrest.
Hawkins said her group is urging "all parties to do what is necessary to not further the divide and separate our community."
Alexis Templeton, 20, a University of Missouri-St. Louis student and active Ferguson protester, said she agreed to serve on a citizens' task force that will guide the city as it establishes a civilian police review board at the request of Ferguson Mayor James Knowles.
Templeton said that after nearly three months of protests, "people are tired on both ends - but for different reasons."
"At some point, you need somebody to lean on when you get tired," she said. "And you lean on the people in your community. You lean on your neighbor. You lean on their next-door neighbor's next-door neighbor. And that's what's going on right now."
A grand jury is expected to decide by mid-November whether to indict Wilson for killing Brown. Law enforcement officials are bracing for potential fallout from the decision.
On Tuesday, the Ferguson City Council also approved a pair of ceremonial resolutions seeking changes in how the state deals with officer-involved shootings.
The first supports setting new guidelines for investigating such shootings, while the other prompts departments to issue annual reports on deadly uses of force.