BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Shooting of Michael Brown
Location of Ferguson, Missouri, within St. Louis County, and St. Louis County within Missouri
| |
| Time | 12:01 p.m. – 12:03 p.m. |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, August 9, 2014 |
| Location | Ferguson, Missouri, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 38.73847°N 90.27387°W [1] |
| Participants |
|
| Deaths | Michael Brown |
| Injuries | Darren Wilson (during struggle) |
| Charges | None filed |
| Litigation | Wrongful death lawsuit pending |
The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, 28, a white Ferguson police officer. The disputed circumstances of the shooting and the resultant protests and civil unrest received considerable attention in the U.S. and abroad, and sparked a vigorous debate about law enforcement's relationship with African Americans, and police use of force doctrine in Missouri and nationwide.
Shortly before the shooting, Brown stole several packages of cigarillos from a nearby convenience store and shoved the store clerk.[2] Wilson had been notified by police dispatch of the robbery and the suspect's description. He encountered Brown and Dorian Johnson as they were walking down the middle of the street. Although Wilson's initial contact with Brown and Johnson was unrelated to the robbery, Wilson said that he recognized that the two men matched the robbery suspect descriptions.[3][4] Wilson backed up his cruiser and blocked them. An altercation ensued with Brown and Wilson struggling through the window of the police vehicle until Wilson's gun was fired. Brown and Johnson then fled, with Wilson in pursuit of Brown. Brown stopped and turned to face the officer. The entire interaction eventually resulted in Officer Wilson firing at him several times, all striking him in the front. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve bullets;[5] the last was probably the fatal shot.[6][7][8] Brown was unarmed. Brown was moving toward Wilson when the final shots were fired. Witness reports differed as to what Brown was doing with his hands when he was shot, but no credible witness said that he had his hands up in surrender.[9]
The shooting sparked unrest in Ferguson. Protests, both peaceful and violent, along with vandalism and looting, continued for more than a week, resulting in night curfews. The response of area police agencies in dealing with the protests received significant criticism from the media and politicians. There were concerns over insensitivity, tactics and a militarized response. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered local police organizations to cede much of their authority to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
On November 24, 2014, it was announced that the St. Louis County grand jury had decided not to indict Wilson.[10] On March 4, 2015, the U. S. Department of Justice cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting, finding that witnesses who corroborated his account were credible while those who incriminated him were not,[11][12] and that according to the evidence, Wilson shot Michael Brown in self-defense.[13][14]
Backgrounds
Michael Brown, Jr. (May 20, 1996[15] – August 9, 2014) was the son of Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr.[16] Brown graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis eight days before his death, completing an alternative education program.[17]At the time of his death, he was 18 years old, 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall and weighed 292 lb (132 kg).[8]
Darren Dean Wilson[18] (born May 14, 1986) was born in Fort Worth, Texas.[19][20] He was 28 years old at the time of the shooting.[21][22] Wilson is 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall and weighs about 210 lb (95 kg).[23] Wilson first worked as a police officer in the police department of Jennings, Missouri.[24] Wilson had no disciplinary history. After Jennings Police Department was disbanded following a federal probe into department misuse of funds,[25][26] Wilson became a police officer in Ferguson.[27]
Incident
At 11:47 a.m., Wilson responded to the call of a baby with breathing problems and drove to Glenark Drive, east of Canfield Drive.[28] About three minutes later and several blocks away, Michael Brown was recorded on camera stealing a box of Swisher cigars and pushing away a Ferguson Market clerk. Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, left the market at about 11:54 a.m.[29] At 11:53, a police dispatcher reported a "stealing in progress" at the Ferguson Market and described the suspect as a black male wearing a white T-shirt running toward QuikTrip. The suspect was reported as having stolen a box of Swisher cigars.[28] At 11:57, the dispatch described the suspect as wearing a red Cardinals hat, a white T-shirt, yellow socks, and khaki shorts, and that he was accompanied by another male.[28] At 12:00 p.m., Wilson reported that he was back in service and radioed units 25 and 22 to ask if they need his assistance in searching for the suspects.[28] Seven seconds later, an unidentified officer said the suspects had disappeared.[28] Wilson called for backup at 12:02, saying "[Unit] 21. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car."[28]
Reports of what happened next differ widely between sources and witnesses, but Brown ended up shot dead by Wilson. At noon on August 9, Wilson drove up to Brown and Johnson in the middle of Canfield Drive and ordered them to move off the street and onto the sidewalk. Wilson continued driving past the two men, but then backed up and stopped close to them.[4][8][30][31] A struggle took place between Brown and Wilson through the window of the police SUV, a Chevrolet Tahoe.[32] Wilson's gun was fired twice during the struggle while it was inside the vehicle, with one bullet hitting Brown's right hand.[32][33] Brown and Johnson fled and Johnson hid behind a car.[34] Wilson got out of the vehicle and pursued Brown.[35] At some point, Wilson fired his gun again, with at least six shots striking Brown,[8] fatally wounding him. Brown was unarmed.[32][36] Less than 90 seconds passed from the time Wilson encountered Brown to the time of Brown's death.[37][38]
An unidentified officer arrived on the scene and, 73 seconds after Wilson's call, asked where the second suspect was. Thirty-one seconds later a supervisor was requested by Unit 25. At 12:07 p.m., an officer on scene radioed to dispatch for more units.[28] Also at 12:07 the St. Louis County police were notified and county officers began arriving on scene at around 12:15 p.m. The St. Louis County detectives were notified at 12:43 p.m. and arrived about 1:30 p.m. with the forensic investigator arriving at about 2:30 p.m.[39]
Police dispatched a dozen units to the scene by 1:00 p.m. with another dozen, including two canine units, by 2:00 p.m. Gunshots were recorded in Ferguson police logs at 2:11 p.m., and by the ambulance dispatch again at 2:14 p.m. which led to the response of 20 units from eight different municipal forces in the next 20 minutes. As the situation deteriorated, the police commanders had investigators seek cover and detectives assisted in crowd control. At 2:45, four canine units arrived on scene, and the SWAT team arrived at 3:20 p.m.[40] The medical examiner began his examination at around 3:30 p.m. which concluded about half an hour later with the body being cleared to be taken to the morgue.[40][41] At 4:37 p.m., Brown's body was signed in by workers at the morgue.[40]
Investigations into the shooting
Police investigation
Brown was fatally shot by Wilson at about 12:02PM. The Ferguson Police Department was on the scene within minutes, as were crowds of residents, some expressing hostility toward the police. Paramedics covered the body with sheets. About 20 minutes after the shooting, the Ferguson Police Chief turned over the homicide investigation to the St. Louis County Police Department (SLCPD). The arrival of SLCPD detectives took about 70 minutes, as they were occupied with another crime scene 37 minutes away. On arrival at 1:30PM they put up privacy screens around the body. Their investigation was slowed due to safety concerns regarding the sound of gunfire in the area and some hostile members of the crowd encroaching on the crime scene. An investigator from the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s office arrived at 2:30PM. The body was removed at 4:00PM.[42] The authorities were criticized for leaving Brown’s body in the street for 4 hours.[40]
Department of Justice investigation
On August 11, 2014, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a civil rights investigation into the incident.[43] A spokeswoman for the FBI's St. Louis field office stated that the decision to open an investigation was not motivated by the protests and riots.[44] Forty FBI agents went door-to-door looking for potential witnesses that may have information about the shooting.[45] Additionally, attorneys from the Civil Rights Division and from the United States Attorney's Office were participating in the investigation.[46]
On March 4, 2015, the federal investigation cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. The investigation concluded that there was no evidence upon which prosecutors could rely to disprove Wilson's subjective belief that he feared for his safety, that witnesses who contradicted Wilson were not credible, that evidence and credible witnesses corroborated Wilson's account, and that the facts did not support the filing of criminal charges against Wilson.[47][48][11]
Grand jury hearing
The grand jury members were impaneled in May 2014, prior to the shooting, and consisted of three blacks (one man and two women) and nine whites (six men and three women), which roughly corresponded to the racial makeup of St. Louis County.[49] The racial make up of St. Louis County is 70% white and the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson was about 66% black.[50] On August 20, 2014, the grand jury started hearing evidence in the case State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson, in order to decide whether a crime was committed and if there was probable cause to believe Wilson committed it.[51]
Robert P. McCulloch, the elected prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, was in charge of the prosecution but was not present for the direct handling of the grand jury hearing.[52][53][54] It was handled by two Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys of McCulloch's office: Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley.[53] From the beginning of the process, McCulloch announced that the grand jury would hear all the evidence, that proceedings would be transcribed and the materials would be made public if there was no indictment.[55]
It would take the grand jury 25 days over the span of three months to hear more than 5,000 pages of testimony from 60 witnesses and then deliberate on whether or not to indict Wilson.[55][56] This would also result in a deviation from time in which the grand jury proceedings were handled, as most grand juries complete their work in a matter of days.[55] Throughout the process the grand jury was not sequestered during the proceedings.[57]
On the night of November 24, Prosecutor McCulloch reported in a 20-minute press conference that the grand jury reached a decision in the case and elected not to indict Wilson.[58]
On November 24, McCulloch released thousands of pages of grand jury documents following the announce of the grand jury decision.[59] The documents includes transcripts of the proceedings, expert statements and the testimony of some witnesses.[60] On December 8, more witness interviews and over 50 brief audio recordings between the police dispatchers and responding police officers.[61] On December 13, a third release included the transcripts of witness interviews including one with Dorian Johnson.[62] Video of the two-hour interview of Johnson by FBI and county police were withheld.[63][64]
Robert P. McCulloch was the main focus of much of the criticism throughout the process and well into its aftermath. Attorney Raul Reyes characterized McCulloch as not being impartial because his father was a police officer killed in an incident with a black suspect and members of his family served with the St. Louis Police Department.[65] A petition calling for McCulloch to recuse himself gained 70,000 signatures.[66][67][68][69] Governor Jay Nixon declined to remove McCulloch and released a statement that doing so would potentially jeopardize the prosecution.[70] McCulloch would dismiss the claims of bias, but later regretted not speaking publicly about his background at the time.[53][71]
Legal analysts raised concerns over McCulloch's unorthodox approach, asserting that this process could have influenced the grand jury to decide not to indict,[72][73]and highlighted significant differences between a typical grand jury proceeding in Missouri and Wilson's case.[35]
Evidence
Shooting scene evidence
Evidence presented to the grand jury showed that the shooting scene extended approximately 184 feet (56 m) along Canfield Drive, near where it intersects Copper Creek Court. The two-lane street runs in an approximately west-to-east direction and has sidewalks and curbs on both sides. Immediately prior to the incident, Brown was walking eastbound on Canfield and Wilson was driving westbound. Evidence at the scene was generally clustered around Wilson's SUV on the western side of the scene and near Brown's body, which was in the eastern part of the area.
The 30-foot (9.1 m) western area included Wilson's police vehicle, which was angled slightly toward the right curb with its left-rear corner on the center line. Evidence included two bracelets, a baseball cap, and two .40 caliber spent casings. One of these casings was found at the western edge of the scene and the other is located near the rear driver's side of the police vehicle. There were two groups of red stains near the driver's side of the vehicle and a left sandal was also located in the vicinity. The right sandal was approximately 44 feet (13 m) east of the western area.
The eastern area, which is approximately 124 feet (38 m) east of the western area, is about 29 feet (8.8 m) wide. Brown's body was situated along the center-line of the road with his head oriented in a westerly direction. The distance from the driver's door of the SUV to Brown's head was about 153 feet (47 m). Two groups of red stains were located at the extreme eastern edge of the scene, with the furthest just under 22 feet (6.7 m) from Brown's feet.
One apparent projectile was found near the body. There were ten spent .40 caliber casings scattered on the south side of the road, near Brown's body. The distribution of the casings combined with most of the casings being east of the body is consistent with the officer moving backwards while firing.[1] Blood spatter approximately 25 feet behind Brown's body suggest that Brown was moving toward Wilson when he was killed.[35][76]
DNA evidence
Brown's DNA was found on the gun. His DNA was also found on the left thigh of Wilson's pants and on the inside driver's door handle of Wilson's police SUV,[33] the result of Brown's blood spilled staining Wilson's pants and the door handle.[77] Wilson's DNA was found on Brown's left palm but was not found under Brown's fingernails or on his right hand.[33]
Dr. Michael Graham, the St. Louis medical examiner, said blood was found on Wilson's gun and inside the car, and tissue from Brown was found on the exterior of the driver's side of Wilson's vehicle, both of which were consistent with a struggle at that location. According to Judy Melinek, a San Francisco pathologist, the official autopsy, which stated Brown's hand had foreign matter consistent with a gun discharge on it, supported Wilson's testimony that Brown was reaching for the weapon,[78]or indicating the gun was inches away from Brown's hand when it went off.[33]
According to the detective that performed tests on the gun, he had to decide whether to perform a DNA test or dust for fingerprints, because only one test can be performed without affecting the other.[33] He found the gun stored in an unsealed envelope, contrary to the evidence-handling process he was accustomed to.[79]Documents released after the grand jury proceedings show that Wilson washed blood from his hands and checked his own gun into an evidence bag, both of which were described by media outlets as unorthodox procedures.[80][81]
Autopsies
Three autopsies were performed on Brown's body, with all three noting that Brown had been shot at least six times, including twice in the head, with no shots in his back.[82]
The county autopsy report described gunshot entry and exit wounds to Brown's right arm coming from both the front, (ventral - palms facing forward) and from the back, (dorsal - palms facing backward).[83]
County autopsy
The local medical examiner autopsy report released to state prosecutors said that Brown was shot in the front part of his body. When Mary Case, the St. Louis County medical examiner, was asked to provide details, she declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation into Brown's death.[84][85] The official county autopsy was later leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.[78]
The narrative report of investigation from the office of the medical examiner of St. Louis agreed with Wilson's testimony.[78] It noted that Brown had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head, torso, and right arm, as well as a single gunshot wound to the inside of his right hand near his thumb and palm; it also noted that Brown's body had abrasions to the right side of his face and on the back of his left hand.[86]
The autopsy noted the absence of stippling, powder burns around a wound which indicate that a shot was fired at a relatively short range. Dr. Michael Graham, theSt. Louis medical examiner, notes that gunshot wounds within an inch of the body do not always cause stippling. Microscopic examination of tissue taken from the thumb wound detected the presence of a foreign material consistent with the material which is ejected from a gun while firing.[78] The gunshot wound to the top of Brown's head was consistent with Brown either falling forward or being in a lunging position; the shot was instantly fatal.[78]
A toxicology test performed by a St. Louis University laboratory revealed the presence of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in Brown's blood and urine. The presence of THC indicates that Brown had used marijuana within a few hours of his death, but it could not be determined whether or not Brown was impaired at the time of his death.[78]
Independent autopsy
On August 17, a preliminary autopsy was conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, at the request of Michael Brown's family. Dr. Baden said that he did not find any gunshot residue on the body. Dr. Baden said that he did not have access to Brown's clothes, and that the body had been washed prior to his autopsy. Dr. Baden said that this might have prevented him from finding gunshot residue. In an interview with PBS, expert pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek said that "the second autopsy was done after the first autopsy was completed by the Saint Louis Medical Examiner. And that's done on a body that has been washed and been embalmed, and all of the evidence has been taken off of it as part of the primary independent autopsy. So a second autopsy is not going to catch trace evidence such as this. And so this is different information because it confirms that a close-range gunshot wound occurred of the hand probably during the struggle in the vehicle."[87][88][89][90]
According to the report, Brown was shot six times into his front: four of the bullets entered his right arm, one entered his right eye on a downward trajectory, and one entered the top of his skull.[8] According to Baden, all of the rounds were fired from a distance of at least one to two feet.[91] One of the shots to Brown's head shattered his right eye, traveled through his face, then exited his jaw and reentered his collarbone. The shot that entered the top of Brown's skull caused the fatal injury, according to Baden. Baden also provided a diagram of the entry wounds, noting that the six shots produced multiple wounds, with some of the bullets entering and exiting several times.[8] He also said that Brown could have survived the first bullet wounds, but the bullet that entered the top of his head resulted in a fatal injury.[92]
Baden had no access to the clothing of the victim, and had not yet seen the x-rays showing where bullets were in the body. He could not determine if any gunpowder residue was on that clothing. Baden concluded that there was too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting.[8] At least two commentators have noted that the autopsy contradicts some aspects of some eyewitness accounts, including that Wilson shot Brown in the back[8] and that Wilson shot Brown while holding Brown's neck.[93] In later analysis, Baden reclassified one of Brown's chest wounds as an entry wound.[94]
Dr. Baden was assisted by Shawn Parcells, who does not have a degree or other credentials in medicine or pathology.[95][96] Dr. Thomas Young, former Jackson County Medical Examiner, said that Parcells is giving out forensic pathology opinions when he is not qualified to do so.[95] Dr. Mary Case, who performed the initial autopsy, said that Parcells' involvement could cause issues with the second autopsy.[97] Parcells says that all he did was assist Dr. Baden.[98]
Federal autopsy
Attorney General Holder ordered a third autopsy of Michael Brown.[99][100] Its findings matched the other two autopsies, but its detailed findings were initially withheld from the public due to the ongoing investigation.[84][101] The federal autopsy report was among a group of documents released by the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office on December 8, two weeks after the grand jury returned no true bill on Wilson.[101][102]
Audio recording of gunshots
On August 27, CNN released an audio recording purported to contain the sounds of the shooting.[103][104] The recording was made by an anonymous third-party who happened to be recording a video-text message at the time of the incident.[105] Glide, a video messaging service, confirmed that the audio had been recorded on their site at 12:02 p.m. on the day of the shooting.[106][107] The twelve-second recording contains a series of shots, a short pause, and then a second series of shots.[105]
Forensic audio expert Paul Ginsberg says he heard six shots, a pause, and then four additional shots. Ginsberg said, "I was very concerned about that pause ... because it's not just the number of gunshots, it's how they're fired. And that has a huge relevance on how this case might finally end up."[104] CNN's law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes noted that most accounts of the shooting say there was a single shot earlier in the incident near the vehicle that is not audible in the recording.[108][109] The recording was also analyzed by SST, Inc., a company specializing in gunfire locator technology. The company confirmed the sound of ten gunshots and seven gunshot echoes within seven seconds, with a three-second pause after the sixth shot. The company was also able to confirm that all ten rounds were fired from within a radius of 3 feet (0.91 m), indicating that the shooter was not moving. [110]
Evidence handling
The Washington Post stated that there were unorthodox forensic practices shown in the published testimony of Wilson and other law enforcement officials. It said Wilson washed blood off of his hands without photographing them first. It also said that Wilson submitted his gun to evidence by himself, and that initial interviews of Wilson were conducted with other personnel present and were not taped. It described Wilson's face injuries after the shooting as photographed by a local detective at the Fraternal Order of Police building, instead of at Ferguson Police headquarters. An investigator with the St. Louis County Medical Examiner's office testified that he decided not to take measurements at the crime scene nor did he photograph the scene, instead relying on photographs taken by the St. Louis County Police Department.[111]
Witness accounts
Multiple witnesses saw part or all of the event and have given interviews to the media, testified to the grand jury, and were interviewed by the U. S. Department of Justice. The witness accounts were conflicting on various points.[84][112][113][114][115][116] David A. Klinger, a criminologist at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, said that eyewitness testimony often differs from witness to witness, a phenomenon commonly known as the Rashomon effect.[117]
An Associated Press review of the grand jury found that there were numerous problems in the witness testimony, including statements that were "inconsistent, fabricated, or provably wrong". Several of the witnesses admitted changing their testimony to fit released evidence, or other witness statements.[118]
The Department of Justice investigation into the shooting determined that witnesses who corroborated Darren Wilson's account were credible while those who incriminated him were not. The witnesses that claimed Brown was surrendering or did not move toward Wilson were not credible; the report stated that their claims were inconsistent with the physical evidence, other witness statements, and in some cases prior statements from the same witness. No witness statements that pointed to Wilson's guilt were determined to be credible. Twenty-four statements were determined to lack any credibility, while eight which were found credible corroborated Wilson's account. Nine did not completely contradict nor corroborate Wilson's account.[47] Several witnesses reported fear of reprisals from the community for providing evidence that corroborated Wilson's account.[47]
Witness accounts consistent with Darren Wilson's testimony
Witness accounts were not only consistent with Wilson's account but also agreed with the physical evidence at hand. Many witnesses also corroborated that Officer Darren Wilson acted in self-defense during the event. Many of witnesses who corroborated Wilson's account of events expressed fear and apprehension in coming forth with their testimonies after being harassed or threatened by individuals from the Ferguson community for holding contrary testimonies to the prevailing story that Michael Brown was shot in cold blood.[12]:pp.27-34 The following are only a sample of the witnesses that aligned with Wilson's story.
Witness 102 was a 27-year-old bi-racial male. He said he saw Wilson chase Brown until Brown abruptly turned around. Brown did not put his hands up in surrender but made some type of movement similar to pulling his pants up or a shoulder shrug and then made a full charge at Wilson. Witness 102 thought that Wilson's life was threatened and he only fired shots when Brown was coming toward him.[12]:pp.27-28
After the shooting Witness 102 remained in the neighborhood for a short period of time, and corrected a couple of people that claimed Wilson "stood over [Brown] and shot while on [he was on] the ground". In response, Witness 102 stated that Wilson shot Brown because Brown came back toward Wilson. Witness 102 "kept thinking" that Wilson's shots were "missing" Brown because Brown kept moving.[12]:p.28 Witness 102 did not stay in the neighborhood for long, and left the area shortly after because he felt uncomfortable. According to the witness, 'crowds of people had begun to gather, wrongly claiming the police shot Brown for no reason and that he had his hands up in surrender. Two black women approached Witness 102, mobile phones set to record, asking him to recount what he had witnessed. Witness 102 responded that they would not like what he had to say. The women responded with racial slurs, calling him names like "white motherfucker".[12]:p.28
Witness 103, a 58 year old black male, testified that he saw from his parked truck 'Brown punching Wilson at least three times in the facial area, through the open driver's window of the SUV... Wilson and Brown [had] hold of each other's shirts, but Brown was "getting in a couple of blows [on Wilson]". Wilson was leaning back toward the passenger seat with his forearm up, in an effort to block the blows. Then Witness 103 heard a gunshot and Brown took off running. Wilson exited the SUV, appeared to be using his shoulder microphone to call into his radio, and chased Brown with his gun held low...Brown came to a stop near a car, put his hand down on the car, and turned around to face Wilson. Brown's hands were then down at his sides. Witness 103 did not see Brown's hands up. Wanting to leave, Witness 103 began to turn his car around in the opposite direction that Brown had been running when he heard additional shots. Witness 103 turned to his right, and saw Brown "moving fast" toward Wilson. Witness 103 then drove away.'[12]:p.29
Witness 104, a 26 year old bi-racial female, witnessed the end of the altercation from a minivan:
Witness 108, a 74 year old black male, told detectives that the police officer was "in the right" and "did what he had to do," and the statements made by people in the apartment complex were inaccurate. Witness 108 later told investigators that he "would have fucking shot that boy, too", and mimicked the aggressive stance Brown made while charging Officer Wilson. He explained that Wilson told Brown to "stop" or "get down" at least ten times, but instead Brown "charged" at Wilson. Witness 108 also told detectives that there were other witnesses on Canfield Drive who witnessed the same thing.[12]:p.32
Witness 109, a 53 year-old black male, decided to come forth after he said he saw Dorian Johnson lie about the account on television.[12]:p.32 He relayed that when Officer Wilson asked the two boys to get out of the street, Brown responded something to the effect of "Fuck the police." Afterwords Wilson got out of his car and then Brown hit him in the face. He explained he saw Wilson reach for his taser but dropped it and then grabbed a gun, after which Brown grabbed for Wilson's gun. According to 109, at one point Brown ran away from Wilson, but then turned around and charged after him. He explained that Wilson fired in self-defense, and said he did not shoot to kill at first.[12]:p.33
Witness 113, a 31 year old black female, made statements that corroborated with Wilson's account, but stated that she was afraid of the 'neighborhood backlash' that might come from her testimony, and feared offering an account contrary to the narrative reported by the media that Brown held his hands up in surrender.[12]:pp.33-34She also told investigators she thought that Wilson's life was in danger.
Witness 136 was in his apartment using a video chat application on his mobile phone while the shooting occurred. After hearing the first few shots, he recorded the remainder of his chat on his phone and turned it over to the FBI. The recording is about 12 seconds long and captured a total of 10 gunshots. The gunshots begin after the first four seconds. The recording then captured six gunshots in two seconds. There was a three second pause, followed by a seventh gunshot. There was a quick pause of less than one second before the final three-shot volley within two seconds. The recording was not time-stamped. As detailed below, this recording is consistent with several credible witness accounts as well as Wilson's account, that he fired several volleys of shots, briefly pausing between each one.[12]:pp.24-25
Witness accounts against Darren Wilson's testimony
Several witnesses who originally testified against Darren Wilson, while being interviewed by the prosecution, admitted to lying under oath as to the truthfulness of their testimony.[119][120] At least one witness pulled their account from a newspaper and was later discredited by investigators during the process.[120]
Witness 22, who originally claimed she saw Wilson kill Brown in cold blood, admitted she lied to investigators and never actually witnessed the incident at all. She said she was just passing along information her boyfriend told her he saw.[119][121][122] The court transcript reads:
Prosecutors also played the grand jury a 10-minute police interview with a man who claimed to have witnessed the shooting. They then played a phone call in which that man admitted that he actually had not seen the incident at all.[121] Another witness insisted another officer was with Wilson at the time of the shooting. (By all other accounts, Wilson was the only officer present when he shot Brown). This witness described having a clear view of what transpired despite there being a building between the witness' location and where the incident took place.[121]
Witness 35 said Brown was "on his knees" when Wilson shot him in the head. Under questioning, however, his testimony fell apart, and acknowledged that he fabricated his testimony.[121]
Another witness described Brown on his hands knees pleading for his life. After a prosecutor confronted the witness and told them that what they saw as not forensically possible based on the evidence, the witness later asked to leave.[121]
Another witness—number 37—testified to seeing events that are hard to believe. He said that during a confrontation at Wilson's vehicle, Wilson shot Brown point blank in the chest—but that Brown did not fall over and was not clearly bleeding as he ran away. This witness gave several different accounts of how many shots were fired. While he was further pressed for answers as to the truthfulness of his statements, he instead posed questions in return, refusing to elaborate on his statements.
Darren Wilson's interview and testimony
Wilson gave his account of the incident in an interview with a detective on August 10, and in testimony before the grand jury in September. Wilson said that he had just left a call involving a sick person when he heard on his radio that there was a theft in progress at a local convenience store. Wilson heard the description of the suspects and soon after observed two black males walking down the middle of the street. Wilson pulled up to them and told the two to walk on the sidewalk, and Johnson replied, "we're almost to our destination". As they passed his window, Brown said "fuck what you have to say".[123]
Wilson then backed up about ten feet to where they were and attempted to open his door. After backing up, Wilson told the two to "come here", and Brown told him in reply, "what the fuck are you gonna do". Wilson shut the door and Brown approached him and he opened the door again "trying to push him back", while telling him to get back. Brown "started swinging and punching at me from outside the vehicle", and Brown had his body against the door. Wilson stated that the first strike from Brown was a "glancing blow", and at that point he was trying to get Brown's arms out of his face. This was when Brown turned to his left and handed Johnson several packs of the stolen cigarillos he had been holding.[123] Wilson then grabbed Brown's right arm trying to get control, but Brown hit him in the face. Wilson said that he "felt like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan" while he attempted to restrain Brown when he reached through his police car window.[23]Wilson stated that it "jarred" him back and he yelled at Brown numerous times to stop and get back. Wilson said he thought about using his mace and his baton, but he was unable to reach either of them. He then drew his weapon and pointed it at Brown and told him to stop or he would shoot him, while ordering him to the ground.[123]
According to Wilson, Brown then said "you're too much of a fucking pussy to shoot me" and grabbed for his gun and twisted it, pointing it at him, into his hip area. Wilson placed his left hand against Brown's hand and his other hand on the gun and pushed forward with both his arms. The gun was somewhat lined up with Brown, and Wilson pulled the trigger twice, but the weapon failed to discharge. On the next try, the gun fired and Brown then attempted to hit him multiple times inside his vehicle. Wilson shot at Brown again, but missed and he took off running east, while Wilson exited his vehicle and radioed for backup. Wilson followed him, yelling for him to stop and get on the ground, but he kept running. Brown eventually stopped and turned and made a "grunting noise" and started running at him with his right hand under his shirt in his waistband. Brown ignored Wilson's commands to stop and get on the ground, so Wilson fired multiple shots at him, paused and yelled at him to get on the ground again, but Brown was still charging at him and had not slowed down. Wilson then fired another set of shots, but Brown was still running at him. When Brown was about eight to ten feet away, Wilson fired more shots, with one of those hitting Brown in the head, which brought him down with his hand still in his waistband. Wilson said two patrol cars showed up approximately fifteen to twenty seconds after the final shot. When his supervisor arrived, he was sent to the police station.[123]
Wilson told detectives that Brown had reached his right hand into his waistband and that the hand still appeared to be in the waistband after Brown was shot. The medical investigator at the scene of the shooting didn't take any photographs and testified to the grand jury that Brown's left hand was under his dead body, near the waistband, and the right hand was extended outwards.[3]
On November 26, Darren Wilson gave his first public interview about the shooting to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.[124]
Dorian Johnson
Johnson, a friend of Brown, who was with him that day, gave his account of the incident to media outlets in August and testified before the grand jury in September. In media interviews, Johnson said that Wilson pulled up beside them and said, "Get the f— on the sidewalk."[125][126][127] The young men replied that they were "not but a minute away from [their] destination, and [they] would shortly be out of the street".[127] Wilson drove forward without saying anything further and abruptly backed up, positioning his vehicle crosswise in their path. Wilson tried to open his door aggressively and the door ricocheted off both of their bodies and closed back on Wilson.[34]Wilson, still in his vehicle, grabbed Brown around his neck through the open window, and Brown tried to pull away, but Wilson continued to pull Brown toward him "like tug of war".[115][128] Johnson stated that Brown "did not reach for the officer's weapon at all", and was attempting to get free, when Wilson drew his weapon and said, "I'll shoot you" or "I'm going to shoot", and fired his weapon hitting Brown.[126][129][130][131][132] Following the initial gunshot, Brown freed himself, and the two fled. Wilson exited the vehicle, and fired several rounds at the fleeing Brown, hitting him once in the back.[34][127] Brown turned around with his hands raised and said, "I don't have a gun. Stop shooting!" Wilson then shot Brown several more times, killing him.[34][133]
In his testimony to the grand jury, Johnson said that he and Brown had walked to a convenience store to buy cigarillos, but Brown instead reached over the counter and took them and shoved a clerk on his way out the door.[134] Johnson testified that on their walk back home, Brown had the cigarillos in his hands in plain sight and that two Ferguson police cars passed them, but did not stop.[134] When Wilson encountered them, he told the two to "get the fuck on the sidewalk" and Johnson told him they would be off the street shortly as they were close to their destination.[135] Johnson testified that Wilson was the aggressor from the beginning and that for no apparent reason, he backed his vehicle up and tried to open his door, but Brown shut it, preventing him from getting out.[135] Johnson said that Wilson then reached out and grabbed Brown by the neck and the two were engaged in a "tug of war", and Wilson said "I'll shoot". Johnson said he never saw Brown hit Wilson and didn't think Brown grabbed for Wilson's gun, but that a shot was fired.[135][136] At that point, Johnson said they both ran and Wilson fired while Brown was running away, and that Brown turned around and "at that time Big Mike's hands was up, but not so much in the air, because he had been struck".[136] Johnson told the jurors that Brown said "I don't have a gun" and that he was mad and tried to say again "I don't have a gun", but "before he can say the second sentence or before he can even get it out, that's when the several more shots came." In his testimony, Johnson maintained that Brown did not run at Wilson prior to the fatal shots.[136]
Early reaction and analysis
August 9–14
Peaceful protests and civil disorder broke out the day following Brown's shooting and lasted for several days. This was in part due to the belief among many that Brown was surrendering, as well as longstanding racial tensions between the majority-black population and the majority-white city government and police.[137] As the details of the original shooting event emerged from investigators, police grappled with establishing curfews and maintaining order, while members of the Ferguson community demonstrated in various ways in the vicinity of the original shooting. On August 10, a day of memorials began peacefully, but some crowd members became unruly after an evening candlelight vigil.[138] Local police stations assembled approximately 150 officers in riot gear.[139] Some people began looting businesses, vandalizing vehicles, and confronting police officers who sought to block off access to several areas of the city.[138] Widespread media coverage examined the post-9/11 trend of local police departments arming themselves with military-grade weapons when dealing with protests.[140][141] In the days following the shooting, state and federal officials weighed in on the matter. On August 12, President Barack Obama offered his condolences to Brown's family and community.[142] On August 14, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said in an op-ed in Time Magazine, that the event was a tragedy and that police forces need to be demilitarized.[143]
August 15–30
On August 15, a report and video showing the robbery of a convenience store by Brown was released by the Ferguson Police Department. Brown was accompanied by his friend Dorian Johnson. The report and video were part of a packet that included information about the shooting afterward.[144][145][146] The report contained frames of the surveillance footage showed Brown grabbing a box of cigarillos, followed by an apparent struggle or confrontation between Brown and a store clerk.[147][148] The statutory deadline in the Sunshine Law, Missouri's equivalent of the federal Freedom of Information Act, was the cited reason for the release following requests bySt. Louis Post-Dispatch, Judicial Watch and others.[149][150][151]
The Department of Justice had urged the video not be released, saying a release would inflame tension.[152] Missouri Governor Jay Nixon identified the release as an attempt to disparage Brown during the investigation and that it would inflame the community.[153][154] The family of Michael Brown released a statement in which they condemn the way the police chief chose to disseminate information, calling it character assassination following the execution-style murder of their son.[155]
The August 15 release of information was criticized as part of an erratic and infrequent release of information by the police.[156] Previously, the police withheld the name of the officer involved in the shooting, citing safety concerns following death threats against the unnamed officer.[144] The St Louis County Police incident report lacked details.[157] The Ferguson Police incident report was obtained by the ACLU after a request and subsequent lawsuit.[158] Wilson did not file an incident report[157] and there was no Ferguson Police use-of-force report related to the incident.[159] The Ferguson Police Department refused to commit to a deadline for releasing a full autopsy report.[133]
When the report and video were released, the police stated that Wilson had known Brown was a suspect in the robbery.[160] In a media conference, Jackson said that the robbery was unrelated to the initial contact, and had nothing to do with Wilson stopping Brown and Johnson.[144][160] Jackson later clarified that Wilson recognized Brown as a suspect because he saw a box of cigars in his hand.[31][161] Eugene O'Donnell, a former district attorney in New York City who now serves as a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that while the police officer may have stopped Brown for jaywalking, Brown may have been thinking the officer knew about the robbery: "Obviously the cop's reaction is not affected, but what could be affected is [Brown's] reaction to the cop."[162]
On August 24, St. Louis held their annual Peace Fest, which had a particular focus on Mike Brown. In attendance was Mike Brown's father, Mike Brown Sr., as well as the parents of Trayvon Martin (an unarmed black teen who was shot and killed in Florida in 2012).[163]
In August, Ferguson's chief of police Tom Jackson stated that Wilson had been injured in the incident.[164] Wilson's medical record shows that his injuries were diagnosed as a facial contusion, a term used to describe a bruise.[165]
Brown's funeral was held on August 25, it was the service was attended by an estimated 4,500 people.[166][167] Al Sharpton delivered one of two eulogies.[168][169]
September–November 24
On October 22, anonymous sources leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch what they described as Wilson's grand jury testimony,[170] following other leaks on Wilson's version of the events.[171] The Justice Department issued a statement saying that it "considers the selective release of information in this investigation to be irresponsible and highly troubling. Since the release of the convenience-store footage, there seems to be an inappropriate effort to influence public opinion about this case."[170] Wilson's defense team denied they were behind the leaks, stating that they "[were] not in possession of any of the disclosed reports or the investigative report".[170] The St. Louis County prosecutor spokesperson said that his office wouldn't investigate the leaks because they could not force journalists to divulge their sources, and said that "you can tell by the information they have that the leaks are not coming from the grand jury or the prosecutor's office."[172] The leaks concerning grand jury testimony were condemned by the Justice Department as inappropriate effort to influence public opinion about this case.[170] The leaks referred to evidence that supported Wilson's testimony and increased the likelihood that there would be no indictment whilst fanning the flames of angry protestors.[173]
November 24–Early December
Following the grand jury announcement, protests, some of them violent, broke out in Ferguson and other cities across the United States. Several Ferguson businesses were looted and fires set by protesters. Protests erupted in 170 cities across the U.S., including[174] St Louis, Philadelphia, Seattle, Albuquerque, New York City, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Minneapolis,Atlanta, Chicago, and Boston.[175] Numerous media reports and legal experts criticized the process for failing to return an indictment; except in cases concerning law enforcement officers.[176][177]
A December 2014 opinion poll that was done by Washington Post-ABC News showed that a majority of blacks do not believe the police or criminal justice system receive equal treatment as whites do. Six out of ten white Americans believe the police treat races equally with roughly half of white Americans believing the criminal justice provides equal treatment, but there is a sharp partisan divide between white Americans. Conservative or Republican white Americans are far more likely to say whites and blacks receive equal treatment in the justice system than the liberal or Democratic white Americans.[178][note 1]
March 2015
On March 4, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Darren Wilson would not be charged in the shooting. Its report stated that "[t]here is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson's stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety," and that accounts that Brown put his hands up are "inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence".[179]
President Obama reacted to the announcement, stating, "The finding that was made [by the Department of Justice] was that it was not unreasonable to determine that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Officer [Darren] Wilson. That was an objective, thorough, independent federal investigation." He further added, "We may never know exactly what happened. But Officer Wilson like anybody else who is charged with a crime benefits from due process and a reasonable doubt standard."[180]
International reactions
Various heads of state and foreign news organizations have commented on the shooting and subsequent protests including the Chinese Xinhua News Agency, Germany's Der Spiegel,[181] Egypt's Ministry of Foreign affairs,[182] the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency,[181] protesters throughout the Middle East,[183] the Russian Foreign Ministry,[181] Spain's El Mundo,[184] the BritishMetro,[185] and others.[181]
Amnesty International (AI) sent a team of human rights observers, trainers, and researchers to Ferguson. It was the first time the organization deployed such a team in the United States.[186][187] In a press release, AI USA director Steven W. Hawkins said, "The U.S. cannot continue to allow those obligated and duty-bound to protect to become those who their community fears most."[188][189] On October 24, AI published a report declaring human rights abuses in Ferguson. The report cited the use of lethal force in Brown's death, racial discrimination and excessive use of police force, imposition of restrictions on the rights to protest, intimidation of protesters, the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and long range acoustic devices, restrictions imposed on the media covering the protests, and lack of accountability for law enforcement policing protests.[190][191]
Reactions to grand jury decision
The grand jury process was atypical because of significant and numerous departures from other normal grand jury proceedings. The American grand jury process operates in secret, with the proceedings, evidence and testimony rarely being released to the public in cases of no indictment. From the beginning, McCulloch desired to provide transparency to the process and had the proceeding transcribed with the intention of releasing the materials to the public if there was no indictment. Paul Cassell, former US federal judge, said the investigative grand jury was unique because they were investigating with no assurance that any criminal conduct was present, in contrast to normal grand jury proceedings which have been screened for probable cause by a prosecutor. McCulloch's intentions to present all the evidence resulted in the proceedings which took far longer than regular grand juries which decide within days.[55]
Earlier in the hearing, the prosecution presented a 1979 Missouri statute that allowed officers to use deadly force "to effect the arrest or prevent the escape from custody [of a person]". However, before the grand jury deliberated, jurors were told to disregard the previous instructions and use case law from the Tennessee v Garner ruling, which stated that it was unconstitutional for police officers to use deadly force to apprehend non-dangerous fleeing suspects.[192] Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, acknowledged that the grand jury was given information based on the state law before being informed that deadly force cannot be used merely to prevent the escape of an unarmed suspect.[192][193] MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnellargued that this change amounted to a deliberate attempt by the prosecution to make it impossible to indict Wilson.[194] Andrew F. Branca, a Massachusetts lawyer focusing on self-defense law, attributed O'Donnell's comments as a straw man because self-defense is a completely independent and sufficient justification for the use of deadly force.[195] The St. Louis Public Radio would later clarify that even if Wilson was indicted and convicted at trial based on the Garner ruling, the conviction could be challenged on the basis that Missouri law permitted the use of deadly force.[192]
The prosecution's handling of the case received particular attention. Roger Parloff said that prosecutors do not usually exclude truly exculpatory evidence and that prosecutors do not typically indict if they believe the accused is not guilty, disagreeing with the notion that McCulloch should have presented evidence with the purpose of obtaining an indictment.[196] Jay Sterling Silver said that the grand jury case indicated a conflict of interest between local prosecutors and police, as the former needs to maintain a good relationship with law enforcement.[197] Mark O'Mara said the unusual process was to avoid arguments that the presentation was to effect a particular result, yet despite this McCulloch was still criticized for the decision. Paul Callan, former deputy chief of homicide in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, gave a layered response which asserted that while the choice to present all the evidence was unusual, but not unprecedented in controversial cases. Callan said some proseuctors use the grand jury process as political cover in cases which would not succeed as trial and in cases which subsequent investigations and civil lawsuits would raise further criticism.[121] William Fitzpatrick, of the National District Attorneys Association, said that it was not strange for prosecutors in police-involved cases to provide all available evidence and not ask for a specific charge and defended McCulloch's inclusion of evidence.[73] Jeffrey Toobin agreed that the exoneration may have been well-justified because a conviction would have been very unlikely at a trial, but the process that was used does not inspire confidence in the legal system.[121] In a later interview, McCulloch defended the choice to include all evidence and not skew the presentation just for the sake of getting an indictment.[71]
The New York Times described prosecutors' questioning of Wilson as "gentle" and said it contrasted with the sharp challenges to witnesses whose accounts seemed to contradict Wilson's, and reported that this had led some to question whether the process was as objective as McCulloch had claimed. The Times reported that prosecutors asked witness after witness if Brown appeared to be reaching for a weapon when confronting Wilson, though few of them said that. Furthermore, contradictions in testimony by Wilson and other law-enforcement officers were left unchallenged by prosecutors.[76] CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin criticized the prosecutors for asking softball questions during the cross examination of Wilson's testimony, and referred particularly to the fact that no witness could corroborate Wilson's story that he had warned Brown twice to lay down on the ground, and when asked, witnesses said that they did not hear him say that.[198]
After the grand jury's decision was announced, Michael Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, turned to a crowd of demonstrators who had gathered, and yelled "Burn this bitch down", according to a New York Times video.[199] Moments before, he had said "If I get up [on the platform] I'm gonna start a riot."[200] He later apologized for the outburst.[201]
Aftermath
On November 29, Wilson resigned from the Ferguson police force with no severance, citing security concerns.[202][203] Wilson's lawyer stated that Wilson "will never be a police officer again" as he does not want to put other officers at risk due to his presence.[204] The National Bar Association, an organization of African American lawyers and judges, made a complaint to the Missouri Department of Public Safety demanding that Wilson's police officer license be revoked.[205]
President Barack Obama announced that the federal government will spend $75 million on body cameras for law enforcement officers, as one of the measures taken in response to the shooting.[206][207]
According to the Associated Press' annual poll of United States news directors and editors, the top news story of 2014 was police killings of unarmed blacks—including the shooting of Michael Brown—as well as their investigations and the protests in their aftermath.[208][209]
Roger Goldman, emeritus professor at Saint Louis University Law School, Flanders, a Saint Louis University law professor, and Senator Jamilah Nasheed seek the updating of Missouri state law to comply with the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tennessee v. Garner.[192]
The New Yorker 's cover of its January 2015 issue depicted Martin Luther King Jr. linking arms with Eric Garner and Wenjian Liu, and joined by Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.[210]
Funds for Wilson and the Brown family were solicited on the Internet,[211][212] each accumulating hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.[213][214]
Hands up, don't shoot
Main article: Hands up, don't shoot
"Hands up, don't shoot", or simply "hands up", is a slogan and gesture originating from the incident and was seen in demonstrations in Ferguson after the shooting incident and throughout the United States following the Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer involved in the shooting.[215] The gesture became a rallying cry against police violence.[216][217][218]
On March 4, 2015, the U. S. Department of Justice issued a report on the shooting[12] which said, "There is no witness who has stated that Brown had his hands up in surrender whose statement is otherwise consistent with the physical evidence" and "our investigation did not reveal any eyewitness who stated that Brown said 'don't shoot.' "[219][220]
Related incidents
Further information: 2014 NYPD officer killings
On December 20, two NYPD officers were shot and killed in their police car in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The suspected gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, posted days earlier in Instagram his intention to kill police officers in response to the killings of Brown and Eric Garner.[221] The suspect, who had a long criminal record and had shot his girlfriend in the stomach a few hours earlier, entered the New York City Subway and committed suicide.[222][223][224]
On March 12, 2015, two police officers not on the Ferguson police force providing security at a protest were shot outside the Ferguson police department.[225] (SeeFerguson unrest – March 2015.)
Task force on policing
Main article: Police reform in the United States
In December 2014, president Barack Obama created a commission to make recommendations for broad police reform in the United States. The commission created by Obama released an interim report on March 2, 2015, with numerous recommendations, including the recommendation that policy be created mandating "external and independent criminal investigations in cases of police use of force resulting in death, officer-involved shootings resulting in injury or death, or in-custody deaths".[226]
Department of Justice investigation into the Ferguson Police Department
On September 5, 2014, the U. S. Department of Justice began an investigation of the Ferguson, Missouri police force to examine whether officers routinely engaged in racial profiling or showed a pattern of excessive force. The investigation was separate from the federal department's other investigation of the shooting of Michael Brown.[227] The results of the investigation were released in a March 4, 2015 report, which concluded that police officers in Ferguson routinely violated the constitutional rights of the city's residents, by discriminating against African Americans and applying racial stereotypes, in a "pattern or practice of unlawful conduct".[228][229]
Brown family lawsuit
On April 23, 2015, the Brown family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wilson, Jackson, and the City of Ferguson, asking for damages in excess of $75,000 as well as attorney's fees.[230][231]
Dorian Johnson lawsuit
On April 29, 2015, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Wilson, Jackson, and the City of Ferguson for being stopped by Wilson without probable cause, reasonable suspicion or legal justification to detain him. The lawsuit claimed that according to the findings of the DOJ report about the Ferguson Police Department, law enforcement efforts focussed on generating revenue rather than protecting the town's citizens. Johnson seeks US$25,000 in damages.[232][233][234]
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