Ferguson: please explain it all to me..?

This is an incident which occurred in Ferguson, Missouri, very near St. Louis. (Segments of the movie "Bad Grandpa" were filmed there).

There was a black man named Michael Brown, who was very large and imposing, who robbed a store of some cigarettes. A videotape from the store's surveillance camera shows him shoving the store clerk and threatening him. The police were called. By all accounts, Brown and his acquaintance were walking down the middle of the street amidst an apartment complex. There were, therefore, many witnesses to what happened next.

A police cruiser, informed of what had occurred in the store, saw a suspect matching the description. The officer, Darren Wilson, who is white, pulled up and ordered Brown out of the road.

What happened next is up to debate. There were witnesses but no video. Michael Brown was shot dead and his body left in the road as investigators arrived. Some witnesses claimed he was shot with his hands up, others later said there was an altercation in the police car. The officer's story was that Brown attacked him in his car and seemed to be going for his gun, and he shot him dead. Others made it out to be a cold-blooded execution.

Then the media took over. Race-baiting, Al Sharpton, every damn fool came out of the woodwork on this one, and incited riots.

A grand-jury examined the evidence and determined it was a justified shooting. This didn't sit well with the black residents of Ferguson as well as others. The case was made to symbolize police shootings around the country, most of which never even reach a grand jury and are rarely prosecuted.

Ferguson Police, predominantly white, had a bad reputation with the black residents in particular. White military veterans in the area agreed they were "commando cops" who take a militaristic approach to policing.

When the grand jury refused to prosecute, riots erupted on Ferguson. Many businesses were looted and/or burned.

That's the story in a nutshell.

I am feeling very ignorant. I haven't kept up on this story DESPITE IT BEING ALL OVER EVERYTHING. Yes, yes I know. Don't give me crap for it. Can someone please explain what is going on? Start from the beginning please. I would truly appreciate it. And please don't just give me links. I don't want to sift through stories to piece it together.