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Wednesday, April 17, 2024 | Back issues
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Ferguson Memorabilia Fight Ends in Charges

FERGUSON, Mo. (CN) - Two people face felony assault charges after fighting over the sale of T-shirts honoring Michael Brown, the unarmed black teen whom a police officer shot to death last year.

The altercation erupted on Oct. 18 as Tony Petty and Pearlie Gordon sold "Justice for Mike Brown" items under a tent along West Florissant Avenue, according to court records.

Gordon is the mother of the woman married to Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr.

She told police that Brown's mother Lesley McSpadden rushed the stand with help from 20 to 30 other people.

McSpadden allegedly demanded that they stop selling the items because they didn't have permission.

A physical altercation broke out after Gordon replied that McSpadden didn't have a patent and that she would keep selling the items.

Petty was taken away in an ambulance with facial injuries. Gordon went to the hospital with loose teeth, a broken finger and bumps on her head.

Latonya Ewings, 35, of St. Louis, and Calvin Carter, 36, of Jennings, Mo., were each charged Tuesday with one count of second-degree assault.

Though Gordon told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that McSpadden was one of her attackers, McSpadden has not been charged.

The 18-year-old whose memory the T-shirts honored was fatally shot by a white Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9, 2014. Brown's death sparked months of civil unrest in Ferguson and brought higher nationwide scrutiny on the use of police force.

Edward Magee, a spokesman for the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney's office, told the Post-Dispatch that prosecutors had two videos of the incident and that Ewings and Carter are the only two people the office has been able to charge.

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