McCulloch, who is white, is viewed with distrust by many African Americans in St. Louis County, who say he is overzealous in prosecuting black suspects and lenient toward police officers.
One of his cases is legendary in St. Louis County.
In 2001, two white undercover drug officers shot and killed two black men in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box restaurant, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The officers said the men, who had prior felony convictions in drug and assault cases, tried to escape and drove toward them. However, a federal investigation found that the men were unarmed and that their car had not moved when the officers fired 21 shots into the vehicle, killing both men. That inquiry concluded, however, that the shooting was justified because the officers feared for their lives.
McCulloch refused to prosecute the officers, despite public protests. He said of the dead men, "These guys were bums."
Protesters also question whether McCulloch can impartially prosecute the Brown case because his policeman father was killed while on duty by an African-American man in 1964. McCulloch was 12. His brother, uncle and cousins all worked for the St. Louis police department.