2 KMOX reporters look back at death of Michael Brown, Ferguson protests 10 years later

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Friday marked the 10 years anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.

The death of Brown turned the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson into the focal point of the national reckoning with the historically tense relationship between U.S. law enforcement and Black people.

Two KMOX reporters were there in Ferguson, Missouri in the midst of the chaos.

"The coverage was unlike anything I've gone through in almost 20 years here at KMOX," said Michael Calhoun, host of Total Information P.M. "Live 24/7, (former KMOX host) Charlie Brennan in at 1 a.m. in the morning doing coverage, the conversations that we had to have at the station, 'do we get guards, do you need a bulletproof vest?' It was a crazy time."

Originally, Calhoun says KMOX was planning to cover the events from the newsroom, but he decided that they needed someone on the ground in Ferguson.

"I was at home and like 'we got to be in the middle of this'", said Calhoun. "So I just took my car, called the newsroom and said 'I'm here, I'm trying to get into the shutdown zone, put me on the air.' and things took off after that.

"I got through where the police were blocking everything off by going through side streets in the neighborhoods and found myself on the parking lot as the windows were broken at the Quik Trip (that was burned). There was a pickup truck that was squealing it tires and ramming an ATM that they were trying to get open and saw the Quik Trip that started to go up in flames and from there it spread."

Maria Keena, longtime reporter at KMOX News, says the only thing that came close to the chaotic situation of what happened in Ferguson in 2014 in her lifetime was a riot at The Hill in 1976.

"I do remember the 1976 The Hill riot , which was huge," said Keena. "I wasn't a part of it, but at the time my mom (who was a police officer) was involved because she was on duty, but that was the closest I've ever came to such a volatile situation like that."

Keena and Calhoun says the entire period was hectic, from the action feeling non-stop, with news organizations all the way from Australia and the BBC in the United Kingdom are calling the KMOX newsroom for reports.

"You wouldn't stop, you come back to the station and Australia would be on the phone, the BBC would be on the phone, they wanted to talk with you," said Keena.

Calhoun and Keena both say that the events in Ferguson did have a huge impact on the St. Louis-region.

"It does show how long it takes to get things done in St. Louis and in Missouri," said Calhoun. "Almost immediately, you had West Florissant, people looked at that concrete wasteland and said 'this is not a good place for people to live. We need to rip up the street and rebuild these buildings and that's happened in other parts, it's the Great Streets Initiative in Manchester Road in West County. It's still working on getting it done in St. Louis."