More evidence is emerging supporting Ferguson officer Darren Wilson’s claims in the shooting of Michael Brown. The most recent story states that Brown did not have his hands up in the air, as supporters have long claimed, when he was shot. The image of people holding her hands in the air has become the unifying symbol of case and the new evidence represents a new contradiction of the account of Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, who insisted that Brown was not shot in a struggle in the car and was shot with his hands in the air.
The fatal encounter between Wilson and Brown occurred shortly after Brown committed a strong arm robbery of a store owner in stealing some cigars:
However, Brown was unarmed when he was shot and Missouri Governor Jay Nixon quickly called for the prosecution of Wilson and referred to Brown as the victim and Eric Holder ordered a massive federal investigation of the shooting as a civil rights violation before the completion of the local investigation.
Much of the anger stemmed from the account of Johnson. As discussed earlier, the evidence indicates that Wilson was suffered some injuries in a struggle and that, consistent with his account, Brown was shot at close quarters, his blood was on the service weapon. The evidence also reportedly supports the claim that the gun was discarded within the car in a struggle.
Regardless of how one reads this evidence, it is another cautionary tale in rushing to judgment in such cases before the investigation is completed. The involvement of politicians and protesters in immediately demanding prosecution can have a highly distortive effect on such cases. There has been an immediate and negative response to any suggestions of evidence supporting the officer in this controversy. The fact is that this controversy — and subsequent rioting — was based on the account of Johnson and very early (and contested) stories of what occurred. As I have previously discussed, while the looting and rioting was not their fault, it was highly improper for politicians to assign guilt before the completion of even the initial investigation.
Wilson reportedly testified before the Grand Jury that he pulled over in his SUV to talk to Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson about the theft of cigarillos. He said that when tried to get out, Brown slammed the door shut and punched him in the face. He just that, when he reached for his weapon, Brown grabbed it and it was pointing for a time at Wilson in the struggling. He said that it was in this struggle that Brown was shot in the hand. He said that he then chased after Brown who allegedly turned and ran toward him. Wilson testified that he told him to stop and then fired. He said that when Wilson continued, he fired more shots.
The independent experts hired by the Post-Dispatch said that they believed that the evidence supported Wilson on some critical points and that a significant struggle occurred in direct and irreconcilable conflict with the account of Johnson. Forensic pathologist from San Francisco, Dr. Judy Melinek, said that Brown’s palms could not have been facing Wilson in the standard surrender position – with hands up and palms out – when he was shot. While other scenarios could explain the evidence and there is still the question of why so many shots were fired (even if the officer’s account is true), there may remain considerable conflicts in the original account.
Those conclusions would seem to support growing view that the Obama Administration also found insufficient evidence to support any federal charge in the shooting and is leaking stories to prepare people for the closing of the investigation.
Source: CBS
A tale is wagging the dog.
A black cop would have shot this guy just like a white cop did. No doubt. When someone is trying to take your gun, it ain’t about race, folks.
Wow, what a shock. It’s looking more and more like the cop wasn’t lying and the criminals were.
Elaine M.
Expert: My Michael Brown Autopsy Analysis Was Taken ‘Out Of Context’
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That is what pseudo journalists do for a killing … er ah … living.
SWM, So? The first kid didn’t know Zimmerman was armed and thought he could wail on him w/ impunity. I feel worse for that kid. Barney Fife had a gun. Bad luck. This kid, strong arming a clerk and then trying to do the same w/ a cop, no sympathy from me. Been around to long. Unlike just about everyone else here, I have street smarts, not just book and people smarts. Been around, you know.
If one’s hands are up in a surrender motion, the shot to the back of the forearm would be consistent, no?
Eyewitness testimony is flawed. I worked for the prosecutor’s office and the defense attorneys here will tell you the same thing. The main witness was the deceased buddy! I would discount anything he said. Not reject it, but discount it.
nick, Both were unarmed.
Some dreadful person commenting on a previous article about dead guy Brown inferred that I was a liar. I had commented on the statute in Mo. regarding a police officers use of force, deadly force, to make an arrest. I included the statute. The U.S. Supreme Ct affirmed a provision of that statute in a Tennessee case discussed above. Here: “such force may not be used unless necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. Pp. 497 U. S. 7-22. ” (Tennesse v Garner, 471 U.S. 1)”
I think that Wilson had probably cause to believe that fat guy posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to others.
I will probably not post again on this unless the person who called me a liar responds. I will go lay down like a good dog and not poop in any person’s yard over this. And if I am laying down then leave me be.
I did not defend Zimmerman, SWM. I said he was a Barney Fife. But, that kid, like this kid, thought he was a “gangsta” and learned the hard way.
TPM, PBS, MSNBC. LOL! Can HuffPo be far behind?
Let’s correct the distance before the 20 feet gets set in stone. The distance from the car to Brown’s body was 125 feet, not the 35 feet the police chief said. This, along with the release of the convenience store video, was the start of the coverup.
“He refused to fill out an incident report and a required use-of-firearm report.”
Really? Show us some evidence to support your claim that Wilson REFUSED to fill out an incident report and a required use-of-firearm report!
Elaine, For a group that is supposedly opposed to a police state they sure run to the defense of every police officer or gun toting vigilante.
SWM – your statement about jumping to the defense of shooters is just silly. I came down on the middle of this one at the beginning because it seemed very screwy and said we should wait for more evidence. However, I was critical of the police who fired 600 rounds hostage situation. And I have been critical of the police who have over reacted to dogs.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/forensic-expert-says-michael-brown-autopsy
Excerpt:
The new autopsy also found the fatal shots had come from a downward motion into the top of Brown’s head. Another gunshot struck Brown in the forehead, a third to his chest, two in his upper arm and one two the back of his forearm.
All but one of the gunshots, Melinek said, seem to have struck Brown in the front of his body, which is consistent with witnesses who said Brown had been facing Wilson when he was shot. Depending on any witnesses physical proximity to the shooting, Brown could have been turning to Wilson in surrender, stumbling toward him after being shot or charging him.
The shot to the back of Brown’s upper arm, Melinek said, suggested he could have been shot from behind.
One more point, he didn’t have his hands up? Several witnesses said he had his hands up. Now a reporter who wasn’t there is saying he didn’t and JT believes the reporter? Must be the reporter is white, so his/her word is worth more than that of several eye-witnesses.
“Wilson held Brown in some sort of headlock”
bettykath, Please provide a link to support that claim.
Crump’s job is to get money for the family raise the dial on any racist elements to get the maximum amounts. His whole thing at this point is that “We do not believe anything this M.E. or Grand Jury says.” However, I think winning a civil suit becomes less and less likely. The city might buy them out for the nuisance value, but that is about all. Crump is trying hard to sway the potential jury pool.
J.T. missed the part where the autopsy says the kid had enough cannabis in his system to be hallucinating. Hope they made his friend pee in the cup right away as well since he is now on the hook for felony murder.
Considering that Wilson’s story waited until they could make a story that fit the evidence, I prefer the on-site witnesses who spoke out at the time. Johnson said that there was a struggle at the car, the Wilson held Brown in some sort of headlock and that Wilson shot Brown because he heard the gunshot and saw the blood. Now JT says that Johnson didn’t say this. Hogwash.
The reporter cherry-picked what the ME told them. She was provided with Wilson’s account but NONE of the witness accounts. Is it consistent? Well, it damn well better be, Wilson had plenty of time to create his story. He refused to fill out an incident report and a required use-of-firearm report. The ME points out in interviews that being consistent with Wilson’s account is only one way to look at the autopsy report. In fact, the report also confirms Johnson’s account. If you add in the accounts of the other witnesses, Johnson’s account is more believable than that of Wilson.
Now I realize that you just can’t take the word of people who actually saw a murder take place and how it happened when they are of a particular skin tone, especially when the lily white armed police officer says “honest, I was afraid for my life when that unarmed big, Black man was running away, so I had to shoot him.”
The idea that an unarmed African-American teen would stop running and turn to “bum-rush” an angry cop who was shooting at him is ludicrous.
Swarthmoremom,
Providing information about a renowned forensic pathologist who said that her analysis of the Michael Brown autopsy report was taken out of context/partly misconstrued by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is considered to be “fact spinning” by those who would prefer not to be informed of facts/information that don’t fit with their scenario of events that happened on the day Michael Brown was killed by Officer Wilson.