The Ferguson Police Department has placed its public relations officer on unpaid leave after he dismissed a makeshift memorial for Michael Brown, the unarmed black man whom ex-Ferguson cop Darren Wilson shot and killed last summer, as a "pile of trash."
After the memorial was destroyed Friday, Officer Timothy Zoll told The Washington Post the incident was probably not a crime because the memorial was merely "a pile of trash in the middle of the street." In a statement, the city of Ferguson said Zoll was suspended after lying about the interview, adding that his remarks "are in direct contradiction to the efforts of city officials to relocate the memorial to a more secure location."