Thomas Jackson - Saint Louis

Thomas Jackson is the Police Chief of the Ferguson Police Department.

This is his account of what happened when he found out that Michael Brown was shot:

"Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said he was driving with his kids on his way to lunch Saturday afternoon when a sergeant called him.

“He said there has been an officer involved shooting with one of your officers. And the other person is dead,” Jackson said. “I said: I’m on my way.”

Jackson said he made a u-turn, headed to the scene and, in the meantime, called the chief of the St. Louis County police and asked him to take jurisdiction." [source]

During a press conference on the afternoon of Aug. 13th, he defended the way the police had been handling the protests and said that police use of force would "likely be scaled down" (but this isn't what happened as of the evening of Aug. 13th - lots of fully armed police during that night's protests):

"Jackson said that the department will likely scale down the show of force at the nightly protests, which have been met by police in riot gear firing tear gas and rubber bullets. But he defended the actions by saying that he believes things have been handled well, for the most part." [source]

In an appearance on Hannity on Aug. 13th, Jackson said that he thought that "outside agitators" were responsible for the unrest (but claiming that protesters are "outside agitators" is an old police tactic).