JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local father who knows the sting of losing his teenage son to violence has formed a friendship with the father of Michael Brown.
Ron Davis' 17-year-old son Jordan was shot and killed two years ago after an argument over loud music.
In August, Davis traveled to Ferguson, Missouri, to meet with and offer encouragement to Michael Brown Sr., just weeks after a police officer shot and killed his 18-year-old son.
Through shared loss, the two fathers have formed a bond.
A bond that Davis said was even more important when a grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Brown.
"I knew that he was going to be so hurt by the decision, that he was not going to have any words, because he doesn't want to speak with that emotion," Davis said. "He wants to wait until he can sit back and think about it and think about his words and then come out and say what he really means.
"I got a sense that he felt that they were trying to assassinate the character of his son."
More than anything, Brown is a hurting father, Davis said, who hasn't really come to grips with losing his son -- something Davis said he experienced firsthand in the days and months after losing his son Jordan.
"The lawyers there are thinking about one thing, but Mike Brown, believe me, is thinking about his son," Davis said. "That's the first and foremost thing on his mind."
Davis said he wasn't surprised by the grand jury's decision, but he was disappointed in the process. He said it wasn't transparent.
"I thought it was just a travesty," Davis said. "I knew about it -- even before I talked to Mike Brown (after the grand jury announcement), I told him, 'I know what they are going to do.' We know what the outcome is going to be when the governor brings in -- five days ahead of time -- the National Guard, you already know."
Davis said his biggest issue was with how St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch handled the process.
Many have called for his resignation because of his close family ties to police, and his decision 14 years ago not to prosecute two police officers who shot and killed two suspects in a drug bust.
"That's why the people are mad," Davis said. "That's why the people are protesting so, and they feel hurt. They feel let down by the system, but it's not the system. They are let down by the police department in Ferguson, the state attorney, the prosecutor and the governor of that state."
Davis pointed to a number of issues he calls unjust: Wilson testifying before jurors and an abundance of evidence presented. He said the facts should have been presented and a decision reached during a trial, especially for the family's sake.
"Did they deserve everything to be done in the light or did they deserve everything to be done in the darkness? Because that's how everything was done, in the darkness," Davis said. "And if that was your son or your daughter, your loved one, would you want everything to be done in the dark or would you want everything to be done in the light?"
As for the violent protests following the grand jury's decision, Davis said the city has been simmering with tension between police and citizens, and Brown's death only made it worse.
"When something like this happens, it just takes them all over the banks," Davis said. "Now they are flooded with grief, they are flooded with emotion, and so I don't condone it, but I understand why they do what they did."
Davis said Mike Brown doesn't want the legacy of his son's death to be violence, which is why he urged for peaceful protest in the aftermath of the decision.
Davis said he's waiting to see if the Department of Justice files civil rights charges against Wilson.