President Obama Calls for 'Peace and Calm' in Ferguson as Missouri Authorities Prepare to Identify Officer Involved in Fatal Shooting of Michael Brown

President Barack Obama on Thursday called for "peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson," one day before Missouri authorities were expected to release the identity of the officer who fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.

The officer-involved shooting on August 9 has sparked days of protests, looting and violence in Ferguson, fanning the flames of racial suspicion and hostility in this predominantly black city policed by mostly white law enforcement officers. Closer to home,protesters demonstrated peacefully in Springfield, saying such an incident could happen anywhere including Massachusetts.

Obama, speaking during a news conference in Martha's Vineyard, where he and his family were vacationing, called for an "open and transparent investigation" into the shooting, adding that he had "already tasked the Department of Justice and the FBI to independently investigate the death of Michael Brown."