Investigators picked apart McElroy's story, saying she could not have left the apartment complex in the way she described.

She also gave conflicting accounts of why she was at the scene of the shooting that day and admitted that she has short-term memory problems from a head-on collision that left her with a traumatic brain injury.

McCulloch on Friday also said he had no regrets about announcing the grand jury decision after dark on the night of Nov. 24.

“There was no good time to make the announcement,” he said. “Whatever was going to happen was going to happen.”

The nighttime decision, he said, was good for area schools and also allowed business owners time to decide if they would open the next day.

Of the riots that followed the announcement, McCulloch said they were out of his control.

“Those who were bent on destruction, they weren't demonstrators, they're common criminals,” he said.

McCulloch also took aim at critics who've claimed that he couldn't be impartial when it comes to prosecuting law enforcement officers.

His father, brother, nephew and cousin all served with St. Louis police; his mother worked with the department as a clerk.