FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) - The fatal police shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, was followed by months of often-violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, the St. Louis suburb where the black 18-year-old was killed.
The unrest began the night after the shooting when a QuikTrip convenience store on West Florissant Avenue, just a few blocks from the site of the shooting, was looted and burned. Many other businesses were damaged or destroyed that night and in the weeks ahead, as protesters clashed nightly with police wearing riot gear and using military-style weapons and vehicles.
Ferguson is recovering. The Ferguson Community Empowerment Center now sits where the QuikTrip once stood. The center houses the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Salvation Army and other offices. A new Boys & Girls Club building is going up a few blocks away.
But West Florissant is still scarred with empty lots where businesses had to be demolished and empty storefronts where businesses moved away.
On nearby Canfield Drive, the large makeshift memorial that sat in the middle of the street for months after the shooting - in the same spot where Brown’s body had been - is gone. A small plaque remains near the shooting site.
At the request of Brown’s family, the city has removed a patch of the pavement where he was shot and replaced it.
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