Killing of Michael Brown

This article 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. 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 robbed a nearby convenience store, stole several cigarillos, and shoved the store clerk. 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 blocking traffic. 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. 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 from front. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve rounds; the last was probably the fatal shot. Brown was unarmed. Witness reports differed as to whether and when Brown had his hands raised, and whether he was moving toward Wilson when the final shots were fired.

The shooting sparked unrest in Ferguson, 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. 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. Mainly peaceful protests continued for several weeks.

Robert P. McCulloch, the Prosecuting Attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri, decided to bring the case in front of a grand jury to determine whether there was probable cause to indict Wilson for his actions. On November 24, McCulloch announced that the jury had decided not to indict Wilson. Legal analysts raised concerns over McCulloch's unorthodox approach, asserting that this process could have influenced the grand jury to decide not to indict, and highlighted significant differences between a typical grand jury proceeding in Missouri and Wilson's case.

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. On December 1, U.S. 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.

Backgrounds

Michael Brown in a photo posted to Facebook in May 2013

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.

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. 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 12:00 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. 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. 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. 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. Less than 90 seconds passed from the time Wilson encountered Brown to the time of Brown's death.

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. 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, was 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.

Criticism surrounding the investigation began with the length of time that Brown's body remained in the street. Despite difficulties in securing the scene, Brown's body lay in the street for nearly four hours. The August 15 release containing the robbery report and footage by Brown was widely criticized and was part of what was seen as an erratic and infrequent release of information by the police. The Department of Justice had urged the video not be released, saying a release would inflame tension.

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. 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.

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 an 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.

Robert McCulloch

Robert P. McCulloch was the main focus of much of the criticism throughout the process and well into its aftermath. Media reports would characterize McCulloch as not being impartial because his father was a police officer killed in an incident with an black suspect and members of his family served with the St. Louis Police Department. A petition calling for McCulloch to recuse himself gained 70,000 signatures. Governor Jay Nixon declined to remove McCulloch and released a statement that doing so would potentially jeopardize the prosecution. McCulloch would dismiss the claims of bias, but later regretted not speaking publicly about his background at the time.

Grand jury hearing

Further information: Grand juries in the United States

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. 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 hearing, State of Missouri vs Darren Wilson, was handled by two prosecutors of McCulloch's office, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley. McCulloch was not present for the direct handling of the grand jury hearing, but he acted as a supervisor and was in full control of the process. 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, as most grand juries complete their work in a matter of days.

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.

On November 24, McCulloch released thousands of pages of grand jury documents following the announce of the grand jury decision. The documents includes transcripts of the proceedings, expert statements and the testimony of some witnesses. On December 8, more witness interviews and over 50 brief audio recordings between the police dispatchers and responding police officers. On December 13, a third release included the transcripts of witness interviews including one with Dorian Johnson. Video of the two-hour interview of Johnson by FBI and county police were withheld.

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.

Diagram of shooting scene

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. Blood spatter approximately 25 feet behind Brown's body suggest that Brown was moving toward Wilson when he was killed.

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, the result of Brown's blood spilled staining Wilson's pants and the door handle. Wilson’s DNA was found on Brown’s left palm but was not found under Brown's fingernails or on his right hand.

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, or indicating the gun was inches away from Brown's hand when it went off.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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."

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. 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. Baden concluded that there was too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting. 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.

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.

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.

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 were 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

Bruising on Darren Wilson's face after the shooting

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Most of the witnesses whose testimony was consistent with Wilson's account were a family that was in a minivan behind Wilson's truck. One of the children identified as witness 48 described seeing Michael Brown turning to face the officer after the initial pursuit, hearing the officer tell him to stop three times before Brown starts running towards the officer at which point the officer begins firing. Witness 64, a sibling of 48 told police she was unable to decide whether she thought Brown was running or stumbling towards the officer; while being questioned changes her mind and states she did not see the officer shoot Brown while he was running away. Witness 30, the father of 48 and 64 described Brown as walking towards the officer and told the police interviewer that he felt the police officer was only doing his job. Witness 26, mother of the two minors in the van and driver of the van described seeing Brown running towards the officer before being shot and after being shot "a lot of times" claims she saw Brown stumbling. The other witness whose testimony supported the officers version of events was witness 10, self described as a plumber who was doing work at an apartment, told the police he saw Brown turn to face the officer, gesture towards the officer, then begin to charge towards the officer, the officer fires a volley towards Brown, Brown pauses after being shot, then charges again before being shot again until he falls.

Witness evaluations

The Washington Post 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, contradictions in testimony by Wilson and other law-enforcement officers were left unchallenged by prosecutors.

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.

Early reaction and analysis

Main article: 2014 Ferguson unrest

August 9-14

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 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. 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.

August 15-30

On August 15, a report and video showing the robbery of a convenience store by Brown 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 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. Previously, the police withheld the name of the officer involved in the shooting, citing safety concerns following death threats against the unnamed officer. 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, calling it character assassination following the execution-style murder of their son. 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 by St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Judicial Watch and others.

When the report and video were released, the police stated that Wilson had known Brown was a suspect in the robbery. 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. Jackson later clarified that Wilson recognized Brown as a suspect because he saw a box of cigars in his hand. 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."

The St Louis County Police filed an incident report on August 19, and its release was approved the following day. Immediately following the release of the St Louis County Police 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. 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. Attempts to obtain the incident reports in the aftermath of the shooting, included the National Bar Association and the ACLU. On August 21, the Ferguson Police's incident report was obtained by the ACLU after a request and subsequent lawsuit was made to obtain it. Yahoo News reported that by the Ferguson Police Department's use-of-force report related to the incident was non-existent, and said that such a report is required 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. Anthony Rothert, the legal director for the Missouri branch of the ACLU, who had sued for the release of the incident report said that the release of some public records and not others leaves the public to imagine reasons why they are being hidden.

In August, Ferguson's chief of police Tom Jackson stated that Wilson had been injured in the incident. Several news outlets reported that anonymous sources, reportedly close to the investigation, stated that Wilson had been beaten nearly unconscious and had suffered a fractured eye socket. Later, CNN reported that according to anonymous sources, 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 as part of the evidence presented to the grand jury; Wilson's medical record shows that his injuries were diagnosed as a facial contusion, a term used to describe a bruise.

Brown's funeral was held on August 25, it was the service was attended by an estimated 4,500 people. Al Sharpton delivered one of two eulogies. On September 4, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department will investigate Ferguson police force for possible misconduct or discrimination.

September through November 24

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson at the news conference

A makeshift memorial placed during protests

Protesters gather at the Ferguson police department

On October 22, anonymous sources 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." The leaks concerning grand jury testimony were condemned by the Justice Department as inappropriate effort to influence public opinion about this case. 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.

November 24 - Early December

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

Police sharpshooter atop a SWAT vehicle during protests at Ferguson

Clashes between police and protesters

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 City, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Chicago and Boston. Numerous media reports and legal experts criticized the process for failing to return an indictment; except in cases concerning law enforcement officers.

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.

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, Egypt's Ministry of Foreign affairs, the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency, protesters throughout the Middle East, the Russian Foreign Ministry, Spain's El Mundo, the British Metro, and others.

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.

Reactions to grand jury decision

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

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.

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. 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. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell argued that this change amounted to a deliberate attempt by the prosecution to make it impossible to indict Wilson. 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. 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.

In the weeks following the indictment, the analysis of the witness statements revealed that numerous witnesses had altered their stories or confessed to fabricating their eyewitness testimony. Witness 22 recanted her testimony and explained that she lied to investigators and never witnessed the incident. Witness 35 had testified that Brown was on his knees when Wilson shot him in the head, only to confess that it was made up during questioning. Witness 40, a supporter of Wilson's account, was revealed during questioning to have made racist comments and changed her testimony based on news reports. Witness 40's testimony was held in partisan media as supportive of Wilson, but later by supporters of Brown following an identification conducted by Smoking Gun. Witness 40's testimony was discredited by the prosecution and according to Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate was unlikely to have made any impact on the grand jury at all. Witness 37 gave different accounts, but confronted prosecutors with a question of why was he testifying if he was not credible.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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 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.

Aftermath

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. 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. 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.

President Barack Obama announced that the federal government will spend US$75 million on body cameras for law enforcement officers, as one of the measures taken in response to the shooting.

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.

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.

Hands up, don't shoot

"Hands up!" sign displayed at a Ferguson protest

Main article: Hands up, don't shoot

"Hands up, don't shoot", or simply "hands up", is a saying and gesture originating from 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. On December 1, 2014, several lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives made the gesture to protest the shooting and police brutality On December 11, more than 150 black congressional staffers staged a walkout and silent protest, using the gesture, in a display of unity with demonstrations against the Eric Garner and Brown grand jury decisions. Whether or not Michael Brown had his hands up when he was shot was in dispute, but the gesture became a rallying cry against police violence.

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 had shot his girlfriend in the stomach a few hours earlier, entered the New York City Subway and committed suicide.

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

References

Other references

• Walsh, Michael; Siemaszko, Corky (August 11, 2014). "FBI takes over St. Louis teen shooting probe as Justice Department monitors case". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 21, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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.