Lawyers for Michael Brown's family say they are planning a civil case against the police officer who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri last August.
The announcement came a day after the US Justice Department said, after a lengthy civil rights investigation, that it would not prosecute officer Darren Wilson in the racially-charged case.
"We are officially in a process of formulating a civil case that we anticipate will be filed very shortly on behalf of the family," lawyer Anthony Gray said on Thursdayi n St Louis County, which includes Ferguson.
"We feel, and we have always felt from the very beginning, that officer Darren Wilson did not have to shoot and kill Mike Brown, Jr in broad daylight in the manner that he did," Gray said.
A second lawyer for the Brown family, Daryl Parks, said the wrongful death suit would name Wilson as well as the city of Ferguson.
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Members of Brown's family attended the lawyer's press conference in St Louis County, which includes Ferguson, but made no statement.
Wilson, who has since left the Ferguson police force, fatally shot Brown on a residential street in the St Louis suburb on August 9.
The incident prompted weeks of sometimes violent protests, and ignited a national debate about race relations and law enforcement.
A grand jury in St Louis County opted not to indict Wilson after he testified that he acted in self-defence after Brown tried to seize his handgun.
Others maintain that Brown, a suspect in the theft of cigarillos from a corner shop a few minutes earlier, had put his hands up in a gesture of surrender when Wilson pulled the trigger.
In its scathing report, the Justice Department on Wednesday faulted the Ferguson police department for routinely targeting African-Americans as a way to rack up income for the city.
Ferguson, with a population of 21,000, is two-thirds African-American, but its police force and city council are overwhelmingly white.
The Justice Department said it lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute Wilson on federal charges of violating Brown's civil rights.
The lawyers for the Brown family expressed disappointment with that outcome.
But they noted that the standard for pursuing a state or federal case is typically higher than that required for a successful civil suit.
