Ferguson, Mo., mayor re-elected in first race since Michael Brown death

April 5 (UPI) -- Ferguson, Mo., Mayor James Knowles III won re-election in the city's first mayoral vote since civil unrest in 2014 shook the community.

Knowles received 56 percent of the vote Tuesday to win his third three-year term in office. He defeated council member Ella Jones, 62. She received 44 percent of the vote in a city.

Knowles, 37, was the public face of the city through protests and national attention in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, an unarmed African-American teenager, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The shooting incident came after Brown was under suspicion of robbing a convenience store. Knowles and Jones each campaigned on a platform including a promise to continue reforms begun after a Department of Justice report that accused Ferguson police and courts of bias against poor and minority residents.

The city negotiated a consent decree with the Justice Department to initiate reforms. Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned after the initial report by the Justice Department, and there were calls for Knowles to resign as well.

"We all want the same thing," Knowles said on Tuesday. "We're all here for the same purpose, which is our community. I have spent, really, the entirety of my time in office working to bring this community together to rebuild what had been damaged and destroyed."

Voters also approved a measure requiring police officers to wear body cameras at all times, and for the city to preserve body camera video for at least two years.

The election was held on the same day that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called for a review of consent decrees between the federal government and several cities, including Ferguson.