Darren Wilson

The Justice Department could open a wide-ranging investigation into the practices of the Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department as early as Thursday following the shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb.
     
A person briefed on the matter said Missouri officials were notified Wednesday of the probe.
     

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, braced for another night of racially charged unrest on Aug. 19 as the governor and U.S. attorney general appealed for calm in the St. Louis suburb 10 days after the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown.