Darren Wilson: Who Is the Man at the Center of the Ferguson Shooting?

The police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown was not indicted by the grand jury Monday

Photo: City of Ferguson,File/AP

On Aug. 9, police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, sparking weeks of rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, that were reignited Monday night after a grand jury decided not to indict him for the shooting.

So who exactly is the cop at the center of the controversy?

Wilson, 28, had been with the Ferguson police department for six years at the time of the shooting and has been on paid administrative leave since then.

He has been out of public sight from the time of the shooting, but he did appear at the St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds office to obtain a marriage license last month. He wed fellow police officer Barbara Spradling on Oct. 24 in front of a municipal judge.

The New York Times reports that Wilson and Spradling own a home together in the St. Louis suburb of Crestwood, Missouri, but according to their neighbors, they departed from their residence a few days after the shooting.

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More details about Wilson have emerged from his testimony after the grand jury proceedings were released Monday night.

According to his testimony, Wilson had never used his gun while on duty prior to the shooting. "I've never used my weapon before," he said when asked if he'd ever resorted to excessive force. He also claimed no one was injured in any prior incidents he had been involved in.

He also took precautions after the shooting to ensure evidence would be preserved, including sealing his gun in an evidence envelope as soon as he returned to the station to protect any DNA on it.

"I was just trying to preserve all the evidence I could on the weapon," he testified. "I knew if I put it in an evidence envelope and sealed it, that it would have no other contact with anybody and it could be as preserved as you could get it."

Though Wilson has yet to publicly comment on the shooting, he will appear on ABC's World News in a sit-down interview with George Stephanopoulos, airing Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ET. According to an ABC News release, Wilson says he acted "in fear for his life and was just doing his job."

He added that he "was sorry for the loss of life but he would not do anything different that day" and "has a clean conscience over his actions that day."

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