Timothy Zoll, the Ferguson Police Department officer who called the Michael Brown memorial on Canfield Drive "a pile of trash in the middle of the street," is on unpaid leave awaiting discipline.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch did a story on Zoll's remark, which was quoted in a Washington Post story by Jose DelReal. Ferguson authorities told the Post-Dispatch that DelReal misquoted Zoll:
But the city claims that the spokesman, Officer Timothy Zoll, was misquoted.
“He didn’t mean to refer to the memorial as trash, he said the driver may not have known what was there and accidentally drove over what was there,” said Jeff Small, a spokesman for the city.
At the time, Zoll denied ever making the statement DelReal attributed to him. The City of Ferguson, in addition to talking to the Post-Dispatch, issued a
press release, repeating and defending what it would later admit was Zoll's lie.
Just a couple of hours ago, the City of Ferguson issued a new press release, stating that Zoll, once confronted with the results of the police department's investigation, admitted to making the "pile of trash" remark and "misled his superiors when asked about the contents of the interview."
The press release goes on to state that city officials are working "to relocate the memorial to a more secure location."