User:ChrisGualtieri/Shooting of Michael Brown--temp

This page is about the shooting of Michael Brown. For the protests that followed, see 2014 Ferguson unrest.

Shooting of Michael Brown

Location of Ferguson, Missouri, within St. Louis County, and St. Louis County within Missouri
Date	Saturday, August 9, 2014 (2014-08-09)
Time	12:01 p.m. – 12:03 p.m.
Location	Ferguson, Missouri, U.S.
Coordinates	38.73847°N 90.27387°W / 38.73847; -90.27387
Participants	Darren Wilson (police officer) Michael Brown (deceased) Dorian Johnson (accompanied Brown)
Deaths	Michael Brown

The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, in the United States. Darren Wilson, a 28 year-old Ferguson police officer encountered and shot dead Michael Brown, an 18-year old high school graduate. The resultant protests and civil unrest received considerable attention in the U.S. and abroad, and have sparked debate about law enforcement's relationship with African-Americans and police use of force doctrine.

The situation began when Brown and a friend were reprimanded by Officer Wilson, from inside a police SUV, for walking in the middle of the street. Upon their passing, Wilson claimed to identify Brown, who had committed a robbery of store minutes prior, as the suspect. Wilson reversed his police SUV and confronted Brown, immediately leading to struggle with Wilson in the car. During the struggle, Brown was shot by Wilson and began to flee and Wilson gave pursuit. Numerous supporting and contradictory accounts by witnesses described Brown's death in a multitude of ways in a barrage of gunfire. These accounts variously described Brown being shot dead while fleeing, surrendering, pleading for his life and coming at Wilson. Later, forensic evidence would prove that Brown was shot only from the front and coming towards Wilson.

The shooting sparked unrest in Ferguson, which included peaceful and violent protests, along with vandalism and looting, that continued for more than a week, resulting in night curfews. The police tactics and militarized response drew criticism. In September, Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, launched a federal investigation of the Missouri city's police force to examine whether officers routinely engaged in racial profiling or showed a pattern of excessive force.

Robert P. McCulloch, the Prosecuting Attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri, decided to employ a grand jury to find probable cause that Wilson committed a crime. On August 20, a grand jury began hearing evidence and the decision to not indict was announced by McCulloch on November 24. The grand jury process and its results were the subject of widespread criticism in the media and by legal experts as atypical. Accusations included the unorthodox handling of the grand jury to bias and manipulation of the jury to prevent the indictment of Wilson.

Backgrounds

Michael Brown Jr.(May 20, 1996 – August 9, 2014) was the son of Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. Brown graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis eight days before his death, completing an alternative education program. 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).

Darren Dean Wilson (born May 14, 1986) was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 28 years old at the time of the shooting. Wilson is 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall and weighs about 210 lb (95 kg). Wilson first worked as a police officer in the police department of Jennings, Missouri. Wilson had no disciplinary history. After Jennings Police Department was disbanded following a federal probe in the misuse of funds, Wilson became a police officer in Ferguson.

Shooting

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. 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. 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. 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. At 12:02 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. Seven seconds later, an unidentified officer said the suspects had disappeared. Wilson called for backup at 12:02, saying "[Unit] 21. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car."

Reports of what happened next differ widely between sources and witnesses, but Brown ended up shot dead by Wilson. Accounts support a timeline that begins at just after 12:00 p.m. with Wilson driving up to Brown and Johnson in the middle of Canfield Drive and ordering 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. A struggle took place between Brown and Wilson through the window of the police SUV, a Chevrolet Tahoe. Wilson's gun was fired twice during the struggle while it was inside the vehicle, with one bullet hitting Brown's right hand. Brown and Johnson fled and Johnson hid behind a car. Wilson got out of the vehicle and pursued Brown. At some point, Wilson fired his gun again, with at least six shots striking Brown, fatally wounding him. Brown was unarmed.

Records state that an unidentified officer arrived on the scene, 73 seconds after Wilson's call, asking 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. 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.

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. 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. At 4:37 p.m., Brown's body was signed in by workers at the morgue.

Investigations

Police investigation

On August 10, Jon Belmar, chief of the St. Louis County Police Department, announced that their department would be in charge of the investigation, after receiving a request from Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson to investigate the shooting. The Ferguson Police Department initially declined to name the officer involved in the shooting, citing concerns for his safety, and refused to commit to a deadline for releasing a full autopsy report. Robert P. McCulloch, the elected prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, is the official charged with determining if state charges will be filed. On August 20 he began submitting evidence in the shooting to a grand jury.

County executive Charlie Dooley called for a special prosecutor, saying that McCulloch is "biased and shouldn't handle the case". Democratic politicians said that the investigation should be conducted by a higher authority than the local prosecutor officer because of a poor history of prosecuting law enforcement officers in controversial cases, and said that McCulloch should withdraw.

FBI investigation

On August 11, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a civil rights investigation into the incident, and Attorney General Holder instructed the Justice Department's staff to monitor developments. According to the spokeswoman for the FBI's St. Louis field office, the protests and riots played no role in the FBI's decision to investigate.

On August 16, Ron Johnson, a captain in the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said there were 40 FBI agents going door-to-door looking for potential witnesses that may have information about the shooting. Additionally, the Justice Department confirmed that attorneys from its Civil Rights Division and from the United States Attorney's Office were participating in the investigation.

Department of Justice investigations

On August 13, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Richard G. Callahan, announced a civil rights investigation into the case. On September 4, the Justice Department announced plans to conduct a "pattern and practice" investigation of the Ferguson police department. The DOJ Civil Rights Division's probe will review the department's policies and determine whether any violation of federal or state civil rights laws occurred.

Evidence

Shooting scene evidence

According to The Washington Post, several people involved with the investigation, speaking under anonymity, said blood spatter analysis indicated that Brown was heading toward the officer during their face-off, but Brown's movement rate could not be determined from the evidence. They also said the location of shell casings and ballistics tests were also consistent with Wilson's account.

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 Franciscan 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, <ref4 name=STLToday.Wound/> or indicating the gun was inches away from Brown's hand when it went off.

Diagram of shooting scene

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. Blood spatter approximately 25 feet behind Brown's body suggest that Brown was moving toward Wilson at some point during the encounter.

DNA evidence

According to the detective that performed tests on Wilson's gun, he had to decide whether to perform a DNA test or dust for fingerprints, because only one test be performed without affecting the other. Wilson’s DNA was not found under Brown's fingernails or on his right hand, but was found on Brown’s left palm. Brown's DNA was found on the left thigh of Wilson’s pants, on the gun, and on the inside driver’s door handle of Wilson's police SUV, the result of Brown's blood spilled staining Wilson's pants and the door handle. The detective performing the DNA tests on the gun said that he found the gun stored in an unsealed envelope, contrary to the evidence-handling process he was accustomed to.

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.

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.

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).

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. The official county autopsy was later leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The narrative report of investigation from the office of the medical examiner of St. Louis agreed with Wilson's testimony. 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.

The autopsy noted the absence of stippling, powder burns around a wound which indicate that a shot was fired at a relatively short range; however, Dr. Michael Graham, the St. 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. Forensic pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek was quoted in the article as saying the hand wound was consistent with Brown reaching for the gun at the time he was shot. Melinek was also quoted as saying that the autopsy did not support witnesses who claimed that Brown was shot while fleeing the crime scene or with his hands up, noting that the direction of the gunshot wound on Brown's forearm indicated that Brown's palms could not have been facing Wilson.

However, Melinek later disputed the Post-Dispatch's version of her interview. She claimed in an interview with Lawrence O'Donnell that she never said that the autopsy supported only Wilson's version of events. Melinek said, "I'm not saying that Brown going for the gun is the only explanation. I'm saying the officer said he was going for the gun and the right thumb wound supports that," she said, according to MSNBC. "I have limited information. It could also be consistent with other scenarios. That's the important thing. That's why the witnesses need to speak to the grand jury and the grand jury needs to hear all the unbiased testimony and compare those statements to the physical evidence".

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.

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.

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. 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. According to Baden, all of the rounds were fired from a distance of at least one to two feet. Baden stated, "This one here looks like his head was bent downward, it can be because he's giving up, or because he's charging forward at the officer."

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. 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.

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. He stated that, "Right now there is too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting," and that, in his capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, he would have said, "You're not supposed to shoot so many times." At least two commentators have noted that the autopsy contradicts some aspects of some eyewitness accounts, including that Wilson shot Brown in the back and that Wilson shot Brown while holding Brown's neck.

In later analysis, Baden reclassified one of Brown's chest wounds as an entry wound.

Dr. Baden was assisted by Shawn Parcells, who does not have a degree or other credentials in medicine or pathology. 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. Dr. Mary Case, who performed the initial autopsy, said that Parcells' involvement could cause issues with the second autopsy. Parcells says that all he did was assist Dr. Baden.

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 admitted 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."

Federal autopsy

Attorney General Holder ordered a third autopsy of Michael Brown. Its findings matched the other two autopsies, but its detailed findings were initially withheld from the public due to the ongoing investigation. The federal autopsy report was among a group of documents released by the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office on December 8, several weeks after the grand jury returned no true bill on Wilson.

Audio recording of gunshots

On August 27, CNN released an audio recording which purportedly contains the sounds of the shooting. In a statement from his lawyer, a man whose identity has not been revealed claims to have been recording a video-text message at the time of the shooting. The twelve-second recording contains a series of shots, a short pause, and then a second series of shots. CNN's 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." Others, including the anonymous man's lawyer, say they can hear eleven shots.

CNN gave the recording to the FBI for analysis. Former LAPD officer David Klinger and Tom Fuentes, a CNN law enforcement analyst, raised concerns that the recording may have been manipulated or trimmed, citing the two-week delay between the shooting and the release of the audio. 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. Fuentes further stated that if the recording is authenticated, it can be used to bolster both sides of the argument of what happened during the shooting. On August 28, 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.

The recording was analyzed by ShotSpotter, a company which developed technology to identify and locate urban gunshots in real time, using microphones mounted throughout a city. ShotSpotter could not verify, with available information, that the recording is of the Michael Brown shooting. The company did say that it is the sound of ten gunshots within less than seven seconds, with a three-second pause after the sixth shot. It also said that all ten rounds were fired from within a three-foot (1 m) radius—that the shooter was not moving. It identified seven additional sounds as echoes of gunshots.

Accounts

Multiple witnesses saw part or all of the event and have given interviews to the media and testified to the grand jury. The witness accounts have been widely described as conflicting on various points. 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.

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.

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". 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. 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. 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.

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.

The Huffington Post reviewed Wilson's testimony and highlighted a number of inconsistencies, including Wilson's first interview with a detective, hours after Brown’s death, in which Wilson didn’t claim to have any knowledge that Brown was suspected of the robbery, and that in that first interview Wilson told the detective that Brown had passed "something" off to Johnson before Brown punched him in the face, while in his grand jury testimony, Wilson referred to Brown's hands being full of cigarillos. Another discrepancy reported was between Wilson's testimony, in which he said that Brown had his "right hand put it under his shirt and into his waistband" and that after he was shot dead "his right hand was still under his body looked like it was still in his waistband", and the medical investigator report, which said that Brown's "right arm was extended away from his side. His left arm was next to his side his lower arm was beneath his abdomen and his hand was near the waistband of his shorts."

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.

On November 26, Darren Wilson gave his first interview about the shooting to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

Leaked testimony from Darren Wilson

On October 22, anonymous sources "close to the investigation" leaked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch what they described as Wilson's grand jury testimony, following other leaks on Wilson's version of the events.

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." 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". 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."

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 fuck on the sidewalk." The young men replied that they were "not but a minute away from [their] destination, and [they] would shortly be out of the street". 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." 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". 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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". 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.

Witness accounts in the media

In the days after the shooting, several individuals gave interviews to the media about what they said they witnessed. For the most part the media witnesses told similar versions, but did have differences from each other, other grand jury witnesses, and in some cases the physical evidence.

Michael T. Brady described an altercation in the car saying "I can't say whether he was punching the officer or whatever. But something was going on in that window, and it didn't look right.", followed by Brown running down the street. Brady moved from inside his home to outside, missing the subsequent events, but says he saw Brown falling, and taking steps towards Wilson. Brady began recording events on his phone after the shooting. Piaget Crenshaw described an altercation in the car and then Wilson chasing Brown while shooting at his back, followed by Brown turning and Wilson shooting again. When she was told that there were no wounds in Wilson's back she replied that the shots she mentioned must have missed. Crenshaw's coworker Tiffany Mitchell also described a struggle at the SUV window, and seeing Brown's body jerk from gunfire as he ran away. She said Brown turned after being hit, and then was shot again.

A nearby construction worker was captured on video after the shooting saying "He had his fuckin' hands up." In media interviews the worker reported that he looked up after hearing gunshots, and saw Brown with his back turned, turning towards Wilson, and moving forward about 25 feet. In his Grand Jury testimony, the worker said that three officers had been chasing Brown, but only Wilson fired his gun. The claim of three officers present at the time of the shooting was not made by any other witness.

James McKnight said he witnessed the shooting and that Brown held his hands in the air just after he turned to face Wilson. He stumbled toward the officer, but didn't rush him, and "the officer was about six or seven feet away" from Brown. Phillip Walker said he saw Brown walking "at a steady pace" toward Wilson with his hands up and that he "did not rush the officer", adding that Wilson's final shot was from a distance of about four feet. Emanuel Freeman on witnessing the shooting, began tweeting about the incident two minutes after it began. Freeman stated that Wilson fired twice at Brown while he was running away, and five more times after he turned around to face Wilson. An unidentified bystander, heard speaking in the background of a video recorded shortly after the shooting, is heard saying that after Brown stopped running and turned, "Next thing I know he's coming back towards the police. The police had his gun drawn on him. Police kept dumping on him, I'm thinking that the police missed him." The bystander said that he heard "at least five shots". He continued, "I think ... dude start running, kept coming toward the police."

Grand jury witnesses

On October 16, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an interview with a black Canfield resident who testified before the grand jury. The man, who did not want his name released, said he saw the entire event. Wilson drove past Johnson and Brown and then backed up again. A scuffle ensued in the police vehicle and Wilson's hat flew off. There was a gunshot from the vehicle, and then Brown ran down the street followed by Wilson. Wilson aimed his gun at Brown and repeatedly yelled "Stop", but did not fire until Brown turned around and stepped toward Wilson. At that point Wilson fired three shots. Brown staggered toward Wilson from 20 feet away with his hands out to his sides, when Wilson fired again. The witness said that Brown was already falling as the last shots were fired and that, in his opinion, the final shots were murder.

According to several people close to the grand jury investigation, seven or eight witnesses have given testimony consistent with Wilson's account. Details of the testimony were not reported. Speaking on condition of anonymity to The Washington Post, the sources said that the witnesses are all African American, and that they have not spoken publicly out of fear for their safety.

Grand jury hearing

McCulloch was the subject of much complaints was focal point in the media before, during and after the grand jury reached its conclusion, acted as a supervisor to the process, but was not present. The grand jury hearings was handled by two prosecutors of McCulloch's office, Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley. The grand jury process was atypical because of signficant and numerous departures from comparisons to other normal proceedings. The American grand jury process operates in secret to collect evidence and to test the memory of witnesses against that evidence; this is done to prevent witnesses from altering their testimony to match statements made by previous witnesses. These secret proceedings are not normally made public in cases of no indictment, but in this case it was to provide transparency to the process. Other differences were in the operation of the grand jury. Typically, prosecutors come before a grand jury having already screened for probable cause and present a recommended charge. In this case the grand jury process deviated from normal course by acting in an investigative role, with no assurance that any criminal conduct was present. The prosecution presented the full range of charges with none being specifically endorsed. 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. 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. This would also result in a deviation from time in which the grand jury proceedings were handled.

The members of the grand jury 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. The racial make up of St. Louis County is 70% white and the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson was about 66% black. On August 20, the grand jury started hearing evidence in the shooting of Brown in order to decide whether a crime was committed and if there is probable cause to believe Wilson committed it. The grand jury was instructed that they could not return an indictment unless they found probable cause that Wilson did not act in self defense and did not act lawfully in the use of deadly force by law enforcement agents. Throughout the process the grand jury was not sequestered during the proceedings.

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. 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 US including, St Louis, Philadelphia, Seattle, Albuquerque, New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Portland, Chicago and Boston.

Protesters react the day following the grand jury decision in Union Square, Manhattan in New York City.

The following day, McCulloch released a large number of documents, including testimony from the proceedings, selected photographs, investigative reports, video and audio recordings, and interview transcripts considered as evidence. McCulloch's office acknowledged that it kept some records secret at the request of the FBI, due to the ongoing civil rights investigation. Only 24 of the 64 witness testimonies were made public. More than half of the witness interviews that were released were conducted by FBI agents or federal prosecutors. Interviews conducted by county officials were not released. Seven video clips of Dorian Johnson's media interviews, along with a transcript of his testimony to the grand jury, were released. Video of the two-hour interview by FBI and county police were withheld.

Public response

Main articles: 2014 Ferguson unrest and Hands up, don't shoot

Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ronald Johnson was asked to take over policing of Ferguson, as a tactical shift to reduce the violence

Peaceful protests and civil disorder broke out the day following Brown's shooting and lasted for several days. 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. Local police stations assembled approximately 150 officers in riot gear. Some people began looting businesses, vandalizing vehicles, and confronting police officers who sought to block off access to several areas of the city. Widespread media coverage examined the post-9/11 trend of local police departments arming themselves with military-grade weapons when dealing with protests.

In the days following the death of Michael Brown, state and federal officials weighed in on the matter. On August 12, President Obama offered his condolences to Brown's family and community. 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. U.S. congressman Lacy Clay said he did not have confidence in the local police and asked for a national discussion on the elements of racism of law enforcement. On September 4, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department will investigate Ferguson police force for possible misconduct or discrimination.

Brown's funeral was hosted at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, in St. Louis on Monday, August 25 at 10:00 a.m. The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity paid the entire costs for the memorial and funeral services. At a rally held the day before, Brown's family asked that supporters suspend their protests for one day out of respect for the funeral proceedings. The service was attended by an estimated 4,500 people, including three White House officials: Broderick Johnson, head of the White House's "My Brother's Keeper Task Force"; Marlon Marshall, who attended high school with Brown's mother; and Heather Foster, who works in the Office of Public Engagement. Al Sharpton delivered one of two eulogies.

To Investigations

"Hands up!" sign displayed at a Ferguson protest

A makeshift memorial placed during protests

Criticism surrounding the investigation into Michael Brown's death began with the length of time that Brown's body remain in the street. Securing the scene was made difficult by the growing and crowd which protested against the police and gunshots which were reported around by police and ambulance dispatch records. Brown's body lay in the street for nearly four hours. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also asserted that while the amount of time that Brown's body remained on the street was long, it was not unprecedented in instances of police involved shootings in the area. Staffing issues and police inexperience in dealing with this type of situation, the newspaper stated, were both also other potential factors in the delay. Six weeks after the incident, the City of Ferguson released a video in which included Jackson apologizing to Brown's family for taking too long to remove Brown's body from the street.

In August, Ferguson's chief of police Tom Jackson stated that Wilson had been injured in the incident. It was later announced by anonymous sources, reportedly close to the investigation, that Wilson had been beaten nearly unconscious and had suffered a fractured eye socket. Later, CNN reported that an anonymous source claimed that x-rays had been taken after the incident and they came back negative for a fractured eye socket. In November, surveillance video was released of Wilson in the Ferguson police station a few hours after the shooting. Brown family attorneys said the video shows that initial reports of Wilson's injuries were exaggerated. Pictures of Wilson's injuries were released after the reading of the grand jury results.

Robbery incident report and video release

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson at the news conference

On August 15, a report of a strong-arm robbery by Brown of a convenience store, along with a surveillance video of the incident was released. Brown was accompanied by his friend Dorian Johnson. The report and video were part of a packet that included information about the shooting afterward. The report stated that the convenience store's surveillance footage showed Brown grabbing a box of cigarillos, followed by an "apparent struggle or confrontation" between Brown and a store clerk. Jackson reported that information was due to the Freedom of Information Act requests and that this also included releasing the name of the officer involved. Previously, the police withheld the name of the officer due to safety concerns following death threats against the unnamed officer. Ferguson City Attorney Stephanie Karr said that the release was to comply with the statutory deadline in the "Sunshine Law", Missouri's equivalent of the federal Freedom of Information Act. Requests for documentation included the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Judicial Watch, ABC News and KPLR Channel 11. The Department of Justice had urged the video not be released, saying a release would inflame tension.

The release was widely criticized and was part of what was seen as an erratic and infrequent release of information by the police. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon identified the release as an attempt to disparage Brown during the investigation and that it would inflame the community. The family of Michael Brown released a statement in which they condemn the way the police chief chose to disseminate information, which they said it was "intended to assassinate the character of their son, following such a brutal assassination of his person in broad daylight", and "there is nothing based on the facts that have been placed before us that can justify the execution style murder of their child by this police officer as he held his hands up, which is the universal sign of surrender."

When the report and video were released, the police stated that Wilson had known Brown was a suspect in the robbery. Not long after, Jackson said that the robbery was unrelated to the initial contact, and had nothing to do with Wilson stopping Brown and Johnson. Later that day, Jackson reported that Wilson recognized Brown as a suspect because he saw a box of cigars in his hand. This information release would become a subject of dispute until the grand jury documents were released.

Incident report

Records show that the Ferguson police did not file an incident report until August 19, the release was approved the following day. Attempts to obtain the incident report in the aftermath of the shooting, included the National Bar Association and the ACLU. When the National Bar Association filed their suit on August 13 to obtain the incident report, a response by the city clerk stated that records may be unavailable or not held by the city. The report was filed and subsequently released after growing criticism and media reports following the release of an 18-page incident report of the store robbery. On August 21, an NBC News article reported that according to county prosecutors, local Ferguson police did not file an incident report because the case was almost immediately turned over to the St. Louis County Police and reported a statement by McCulloch's office that the incident report did not exist. Immediately following the release of the Ferguson incident report, Time commented that the lack of details in the report would likely increase the already widespread criticism that the police were protecting Wilson.

On September 25, Yahoo News reported that a use-of-force report was non-existent, and commented that such a report is required by Ferguson Police Department protocol whenever any force – lethal, or non-lethal – is used, in violation of the department's reporting standards, and against recommended standards of state and national police credentialing groups.

Amnesty International

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. 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." 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.

Public reactions to the grand jury

The grand jury process and proceedings was criticized in the months before their decision was reached and were renewed upon its conclusion. The criticism was levied across a spectrum of concerns that was fueled in part by the media cycle, the release of leaks surrounding the grand jury, the grand jury process itself and personally against McCulloch.

A complaint of the process, often tied to other allegations, was that the grand jury result was itself unusual. The foundation of this criticism refers to the very low bar to get an indictment that was also almost guaranteed, and often referenced by the well-known statement that "a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich if that's what you wanted". According to a 2010 Bureau of Justice Statistics report that 11 of 162,000 federal grand jury cases declined to return an indictment, it was frequently cited by critics as evidence of wrongdoing. Harry Bruinius also cited studies that used unrelated studies to show that police officers were rarely indicted for deaths and traced this to a deeply held social compact stemming from the pressures of the job to the bias of jurors' towards trusting the word of the officers. Ben Casselman pointed to the investigative nature of the Brown grand jury and concluded that "[t]he difference in the outcome [...] is hardly surprising." 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.

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. The Washington Post also said there was an inconsistency between witness accounts, stating that the investigators who interviewed Wilson immediately after the shooting stated that one shot was fired inside the police patrol car, though Wilson testified that 2 shots were fired inside the cruiser. 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, some contradictions in testimony by Wilson and other law-enforcement officers were left unchallenged by prosecutors.

The grand jury was informed, just prior to beginning deliberations, that they were to disregard the existing Missouri law and use case law from the Tennessee v Garner ruling. This change took place four days after St. Louis Public Radio highlighted the law that makes it unconstitutional for police officers to use deadly force to apprehend non-dangerous fleeing suspects. After the grand jury decision, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell stated that this change amounted to a deliberate attempt by the prosecution to make it impossible to indict Wilson. O'Donnell claimed that jurors were mislead throughout the case because the original statute was ruled unconstitutional in 1985 and set in the juror's minds a lower the requirement to use deadly force. Andrew F. Branca, a Massachusetts lawyer focusing on self-defense law, attributed O'Donnell's comments as a straw man because Wilson claimed self-defense, a completely independent and sufficient justification for the use of deadly force. The St. Louis Public Radio would later clarify that even if Wilson was indicted and convicted at trial on the Garner ruling, the conviction could be challenged on the basis that Missouri law permitted the use of deadly force.

Robert P. McCulloch was the main focus of much of the criticism throughout the process and well into its aftermath. McCulloch was not directly involved in instructing the grand jury, it was handled by two prosecutors in his office, Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley. Media reports would characterize McCulloch as not being impartial because his father was a police officer killed in an incident with an black suspect, while his mother, brother, uncle, and cousin had all served with the St. Louis Police Department. McCulloch would dismiss the claims of bias and regretted not speaking publicly about his background in a December interview. On August 21, State Senator Jamilah Nasheed presented a petition with 70,000 signatures calling for McCulloch's to recuse himself, based on the close relationship between the St. Louis County prosecutor and the police department, citing also accusations that McCulloch did not file charges, as he should have, against two undercover officers who shot and killed two unarmed black men in 2000, and other controversies.

Following the grand jury announcement, numerous media pundits and legal experts criticized McCulloch for failing to get an indictment, often with claims of bias to downright manipulation. Roger Parloff from Fortune accused McCulloch of using the grand jury to shield himself from scrutiny because McCulloch's failure to secure an indictment indicated that McCulloch believed that Wilson was innocent. Jay Sterling Silver, a professor at the St. Thomas University School of Law, said that the refusal to indict Wilson indicated conflict of interest with the police officers who work within the same jurisdiction. Jeffrey Toobin criticized McCulloch's in the presentation of the grand jury decision as being personally invested. McCulloch confirmed that he could have indicted Wilson solely by using Dorian Johnson's testimony to secure an indictment on the charge of murder. McCulloch described the role of a prosecutor as one to seek the truth and justice, not simply to return indictments and defended the choice to let the grand jury hear all the evidence. Dan Abrams, chief legal affairs anchor for ABC News, wrote that the evidence itself likely persuaded the grand jury's decision, but criticized McCulloch's grand jury announcement for seeming personally invested in the decision. Law professor Paul Cassell examined criticisms of the Brown grand jury process and concluded that the process was fair and defended the McCulloch's aims for transparency while stating that critics against the presentation of all the evidence as attempting to manufacture a weakness in the process. Michael Smerconish of the The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that McCulloch was no-win position and that the grand jury came to the decision because conflicting witness statements which could support indictments were not backed up by the forensic evidence.

Aftermath

August 15 protests in Ferguson

Clashes between police and protesters

A looted and burned gas station in Ferguson

Police sharpshooter atop a SWAT vehicle during protests at Ferguson

After the grand jury's decision was announced on November 24, Michael Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, turned to a crowd of demonstrators who had gathered, and yelled, "Burn this motherfucker down" and "Burn this bitch down", according to a New York Times video. Moments before, he had said "If I get up [on the platform] I'm gonna start a riot." He later apologized for the outburst.

On November 25, the body of 20-year-old DeAndre Joshua was found inside a parked car within a few blocks of where Brown was killed. The man had been shot in the head and burned.

Darren Wilson resignation

On November 29, Wilson resigned from the Ferguson police force with no severance, citing security concerns. Wilson's lawyer has 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. He still remains the subject of investigations by the Ferguson Police Department and the U.S. Justice Department. According to CNN legal expert Mark O'Mara, it is highly likely that Brown's family will file a civil lawsuit for wrongful death, and he was also of the opinion that Wilson would be a focal point for anger in the black community.

Calls for legislative action

Roger Goldman, emeritus professor at Saint Louis University Law School, Flanders, a Saint Louis University law professor, and Senator Jamilah Nasheed are seeking the updating of Missouri state law to comply with the the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tennessee v. Garner.

Related incidents

Main article: 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. The suspect, who had a long criminal record and that shot his girlfriend in the stomach a few days earlier, entered the New York City Subway and committed suicide.

Associated Press top-stories poll

Police killings of unarmed blacks, including the shooting of Michael Brown and others, their investigations, and the protests in their aftermath, was voted the top news story of the year by the 2014 Associated Press poll of news directors and editors in the US.

See also

• List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
• List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, August 2014
• Death of Eric Garner
• Shooting of Tamir Rice
• Shooting of Akai Gurley
• Shooting of John Crawford III
• 2014 NYPD officer killings

External links

• Surveillance video that police contend shows Michael Brown robbing a convenience store.
• Police Department incident report of contemporaneous convenience store robbery
• Chief of Ferguson Police Press Conference August 15, 2014
• Documents from the Ferguson grand jury
• Labelled grand jury testimony documents
• Video of statement at end of grand jury along with press conference. Also, transcript of statement.