The disdain with which the St. Louis County and Ferguson police departments view the black community of Ferguson was obvious with their massive militarized crackdown on protesters, but new details in an article at Mother Jones by Mark Follman shed light on why the community was so infuriated after the shooting of Michael Brown: Michael Brown’s Mom Laid Flowers Where He Was Shot—and Police Crushed Them.

Soon, police vehicles reappeared, including from the St. Louis County Police Department, which had taken control of the investigation. Several officers emerged with dogs. What happened next, according to several sources, was emblematic of what has inflamed the city of Ferguson, Missouri, ever since the unarmed 18-year-old was gunned down: An officer on the street let the dog he was controlling urinate on the memorial site.

The incident was related to me separately by three state and local officials who worked with the community in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. One confirmed that he interviewed an eyewitness, a young woman, and pressed her on what exactly she saw. “She said that the officer just let the dog pee on it,” that official told me. “She was very distraught about it.” The identity of the officer who handled the dog and the agency he was with remain unclear.

Candles and flowers marking the spot where Brown died were soon run over by police vehicles.

The day brought other indignities for Brown’s family, and the community. Missouri state Rep. Sharon Pace, whose district includes the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, told me she went to the scene that afternoon to comfort the parents, who were blocked by police from approaching their son’s body. Pace purchased some tea lights for the family, and around 7 p.m. she joined Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, and others as they placed the candles and sprinkled flowers on the ground where Brown had died. “They spelled out his initials with rose petals over the bloodstains,” Pace recalled.

By then, police had prohibited all vehicles from entering Canfield Drive except for their own. Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.

This account is partly confirmed by St. Louis alderman Antonio French, who took a photo of the crushed remnants of the memorial:

Police cars trampled the rose petals and candles at the memorial for #MikeBrown. pic.twitter.com/nb2fQSrkMX

— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) August 10, 2014