Correctional officer shares firsthand experience with tension in Ferguson
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A Ferguson, Mo. correctional officer visiting the Triangle is sharing with ABC11 his firsthand experience with the violent and fiery protests that have been making headlines worldwide.
The officer -- who did not want to be identified -- says the last few months have been extremely stressful, especially the past week. His primary job is to take people who have been arrested from the streets to the jail. But in recent months, he's been helping to police the protests making him an eyewitness to the chaos last Monday night.
"You kind of pray and hope that you come back the same way you went out there," said the correctional officer.
The corrections officer calls a quick trip to the Triangle a welcome break from the tension back home in Missouri where businesses have been looted, and buildings and cars have been set on fire.
"It was uncontrollable, it was chaos," he said. "It's almost like there's no way of stopping it. It's like an avalanche."
The recent violence began minutes after the St. Louis County D.A. announced officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted for the shooting death of Michael Brown.
"Definitely, I knew something was going to happen, but never to the magnitude," he said.
Protestors began storming the streets.
"You seen people running everywhere," he said. "You could hear shots. I don't know if they were shots being fired from a gun or if it was shots from police. I don't know who was shooting. It was so dark, you can't see too much of anything."
The correctional officer say he and his colleagues felt almost helpless and wished the announcement was made earlier in the day.
"At nighttime, you could hardly see," he said. "You couldn't tell who was throwing things from which way. It was just chaos. It was hard to work through."
The protests have grown to be more peaceful, but the correction officer says he still has concerns about going home -- saying the city is unstable.
"We have a job to do," he said. "We're supposed to protect the community. We're trying to keep everyone's safe. Expressing yourself, I understand that, but the violence it really doesn't help anything. [There are] people who don't care and are going to do whatever they want to do."
