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Ferguson Police Say They Have No Idea What Cori Bush Is Talking About

'Squad' member said 'white supremacists' shot at Ferguson protesters

Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.) / Getty Images
November 16, 2021

Local police said they have no records that corroborate "Squad" member Cori Bush's claim that "white supremacists" shot at protesters in Ferguson, Mo., following the death of Michael Brown.

Bush, a Democratic Missouri congresswoman and defund-the-police activist, on Monday said, "When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us," adding the alleged shooters "never faced consequences." According to Ferguson police chief Frank McCall, however, there is no record of such an incident.

"Not that I'm aware of," McCall, the city's fourth black police chief, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bush, who did not return a request for comment, defended her claim, with her campaign telling the Post-Dispatch, "While on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes."

There is at least one shooting that occurred in the wake of Brown's death that matches Bush's description of coming from "behind a hill" in Ferguson. But in that instance, two police officers were shot outside the Ferguson police headquarters—nearby protesters said the shots came from "a hill behind a dwindling group of demonstrators" who were "gathered across from the police department."

Jeffrey Williams, a 22-year-old black man, eventually confessed to the shooting and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

While Bush has argued that "investing more money in policing is always bad," the Democrat spent nearly $70,000 on private security between April 15 and June 28. Bush in August stood by the expenditures, telling her critics to "suck it up, and defunding the police needs to happen."

"So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend $10 more on it, you know what, I get to be here to do the work," Bush said during a CBS News appearance. "So suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets, because we're trying to save lives."

In addition to her anti-police activism, Bush spent years working as a faith healer for a group that says it has resurrected the dead and cured a number of diseases, including AIDS, cancer, paralysis, and Bush's own severe case of coronavirus.

"Cori, she had COVID, and she called me from the hospital," Kingdom Embassy International presiding apostle Charles Ndifon told the Washington Free Beacon in May. "And 30 minutes later, she was breathing. Healed. It was that simple."

Ndifon's account was corroborated by fellow church leader "Chris Chris," who said Ndifon "murdered" Bush's coronavirus.

"That's why I walk in confidence without no face mask; that's why I walk in confidence with no gloves," Chris said, adding that he was "ready to go march in the streets and just, bam, hulk-smash corona."