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 have sparked debate about law enforcement's relationship with African-Americans and police use of force doctrine.

Shortly before the shooting, Brown stole several cigarillos and shoved a store clerk at a nearby convenience store. 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, though it is unclear when or if Wilson associated the robbery suspect descriptions with the two men. When Brown and Johnson refused Wilson's order to move to the sidewalk, 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, eventually firing several more times. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve rounds; Brown was hit seven or eight times, all from the front, and the last was probably the fatal shot. 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, and on August 20, it started presenting evidence in the shooting in order to decide if to indict Wilson for his actions. In a press conference 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 US$75 million on body cameras for law enforcement officers, as one of the measures taken in response to the shooting.

Backgrounds

Michael Brown Jr.

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 Wilson

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 11:59 a.m. on August 9, 2014, a convenience store security camera captured video of Brown taking a $48 box of cigarillos and shoving a convenience store clerk. A police dispatcher reported a "stealing in progress" at 11:53, and at 11:57 dispatch said the suspect was wearing a red Cardinals hat, a white T-shirt, yellow socks, and khaki shorts, and was accompanied by another man. At noon, Wilson radioed to ask other officers searching for the suspects if they needed him and was told by dispatch that they had disappeared.

At 12:01 p.m., 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. Dispatch recordings indicate that Wilson called for backup at 12:02, saying "[Unit] 21. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car."

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 grazing Brown's right thumb and exiting at his wrist. Soot and residue from the gun shot were found on Brown's hand during autopsy.

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 in the front, fatally wounding him. Brown was unarmed. Blood on the ground appeared to support statements that Brown continued to move closer toward Wilson after being hit by a number of bullets.

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

At 12:07 p.m. 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. He began his examination at around 3:30 p.m., but could not take pictures of the body because batteries in his camera had become depleted. He did not take measurements, as he reported that it was not necessary due to the nature of the events and the scene. "I got there, it was self-explanatory what happened. Somebody shot somebody. There was no question as to any distances or anything of that nature at the time I was there."

At 2:01 p.m. a contractor was called to pick up Brown's body, and at 4:37 p.m. his body was delivered to the morgue, a 15-minute drive from Ferguson. There was considerable criticism about the almost four hours that Brown's body remained in the street. The medical examiner on the scene said that when Brown's grandmother complained about the length of time the body was being left in the street, he explained, "[I]t takes a thorough investigation and crowd control, just getting everybody into the scene was taking time to do that..."

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.

Police

On August 10, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar stated that "the genesis of this shooting incident was a physical confrontation" during which Brown "physically assaulted the police officer". According to Belmar, Wilson attempted to exit his vehicle but was pushed back into it by Brown, who then assaulted him inside. Brown then allegedly attempted to seize Wilson's gun, which was fired at least once during the struggle. Belmar acknowledged that "more than a couple" of shots struck Brown in the course of the encounter.

In August, Ferguson's chief of police Tom Jackson stated that Wilson had been injured in the incident. Anonymous sources falsely claimed that Wilson had been beaten nearly unconscious and had suffered a fractured eye socket. 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.

Initially, the Ferguson City Police Department declined to release Wilson's identity and stated that he had been placed on administrative leave. On August 15, Chief Jackson announced that the name of the officer involved in the shooting was Darren Wilson, who was a five-year police veteran with no disciplinary actions against him. According to Jackson, Wilson initially stopped Brown for walking in the street and blocking traffic, but "at some point" during the encounter Wilson saw cigarillos in Brown's hands and thought he might be a suspect in the robbery that had occurred at a nearby convenience store a few minutes before the shooting. The owners of the convenience store told KTVI that no one working at the store reported a robbery, but that the 911 call came from a customer inside the store.

On August 19, The New York Times reported that, according to law enforcement officials, "As Officer Wilson got out of his car, the men were running away. The officer fired his weapon but did not hit anyone." Also, Wilson said that when Brown later moved toward him with lowered arms, he decided to use deadly force because he feared Brown was going to attack him.

Incident report

Records show that the Ferguson police did not file an incident report until August 19, 10 days after the shooting, and approved its release 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, but not the shooting. 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. The report classified the potential offense as a "homicide". Schellman said that is the standard classification for an investigation into an incident that leaves someone dead.

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.

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.

Sources reported reviewing 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.

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."

Interview with Darren Wilson

On November 26, Darren Wilson gave his first 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.

Michael Brady

Michael T. Brady, who lived near the scene of the shooting, said that he observed an initial altercation on the police vehicle while inside looking through a window. "It was something strange. Something was not right. It was some kind of altercation. 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." Brady could see Johnson at the front passenger side of the vehicle when he and Brown started running suddenly; he did not hear a gunshot or see what caused them to run. He saw Wilson get out of the vehicle and "start walking briskly while firing on Brown as he fled".

Brady then ran outside with his camera phone to record the event. By the time he got outside, Brown had turned around and was facing Wilson. Brown was "balled up" with his arms under his stomach and he was "halfway down" to the ground. As he was falling, Brown took one or two steps toward Wilson because he was presumably hit and was stumbling forward; Wilson then shot him three or four times. Brady said that the pictures he took of Brown with his arms tucked in under his body is the position he was in as he was shot three or four more times by Wilson before hitting the ground.

Piaget Crenshaw

Piaget Crenshaw said that, from her vantage point, it appeared that Wilson and Brown were arm wrestling before the former shot Brown from inside his vehicle. Wilson then chased Brown for about 20 feet before shooting him again. "I saw the police chase him ... down the street and shoot him down." When Brown then raised his arms, the officer shot him two more times, killing him.

According to earlier reports that appeared on August 10, Crenshaw saw Brown attempt to flee with his hands in the air and that he was hit with several shots as he ran.

On August 18, after the release of the autopsy report by Dr. Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, Crenshaw told CNN that no shots hit Brown's back as he was running away, "Clearly none of [the shots] hit him, but one, I think, did graze him as they said on the autopsy report. At the end, he just turned around ... after I'm guessing he felt the bullet grazed his arm, he turned around and he was shot multiple times."

Tiffany Mitchell

Tiffany Mitchell arrived in the area to pick up coworker Piaget Crenshaw. In an August 13 televised interview with a local CBS affiliate, Mitchell said she saw Brown and Wilson struggling through the window of Wilson's vehicle. "The kid was pulling off and the cop was pulling in." She started to take out her phone to record video, but then she heard a gunshot, "so I just started getting out of the way." After the first shot was fired, Brown started to run away. "After the shot, the kid just breaks away. The cop follows him, kept shooting, the kid's body jerked as if he was hit. After his body jerked he turns around, puts his hands up, and the cop continues to walk up on him and continues to shoot until he goes all the way down."

Mitchell also appeared on CNN that evening, describing what she witnessed as follows: "As I pull onto the side, the kid, he finally gets away, he starts running. As he runs the police get out of his vehicle and he follows behind him, shooting. And the kid's body jerked as if he was hit from behind, and he turns around and puts his hands up like this, and the cop continued to fire until he just dropped down to the ground and his face just smacks the concrete."

Construction worker

A construction worker at the nearby apartment complex, who spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on condition of anonymity, said that he saw Brown running away with Wilson 10 to 15 feet behind. About 90 feet away from the vehicle, Wilson fired a shot at Brown, whose back was turned. Brown stumbled, stopped, put his hands up and said "OK, OK, OK, OK, OK." The worker believed Brown had been wounded. With his hands up, Brown began walking toward the officer, at which point Wilson began firing at Brown and backing away. After the third shot, Brown's hands started going down, and he moved about 25 feet toward Wilson, who kept backing away and firing. The worker was unable to discern if Brown's movement toward the officer was "a stumble to the ground" or "OK, I'm going to get you, you're already shooting me." The worker disputed the claim that Brown rushed at the officer, "I don't know if he was going after him or if he was falling down to die. It wasn't a bull rush." In a video obtained by CNN showing the man's conversation with a co-worker immediately after the shooting, one of them can be heard to say "He had his fuckin' hands up."

During his grand jury testimony, the worker said that three officers were chasing Brown, but only one of them was shooting. The worker testified that Brown appeared to have been shot as he fled, and then he turned around and put his hands up and started yelling “OK.” The worker stated that within a couple of seconds, three officers came up and one of them just "pulled up and shot him." The claim of three officers present at the time of the shooting was not made by any other witness.

James McKnight

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

Phillip Walker, a 40-year-old resident of a nearby apartment complex, 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

Emanuel Freeman, a 19-year-old resident of a nearby apartment complex, 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.

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.

Bystander heard on video

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."

Investigations

Law enforcement investigations of the shooting

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.

On October 17, The New York Times reported FBI forensics test results showing that Wilson's gun was fired twice in his vehicle. One bullet struck Brown's arm and one missed. Brown's blood was found on the gun, on the interior door panel, and on Wilson's uniform. The unidentified officials, who spoke on terms of anonymity, claimed that this physical evidence "lent credence" to Wilson's version of events.

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.

Robbery incident report and video release

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson at the news conference

On August 15, Ferguson Police Chief Jackson released a report of a strong-arm robbery by Brown of a convenience store, along with a surveillance video of the incident. 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. Freeman Bosley, the attorney for Dorian Johnson, confirmed that Brown and Johnson had entered the store and cigarillos were taken, and that Johnson had informed the authorities of this fact. Chief Jackson said that Johnson would not be charged in the robbery because he did not steal anything or use force. In the press conference, Jackson said that the robbery was unrelated to the initial contact, and had nothing to do with Wilson stopping Brown and Johnson, but he had to release the tape due to the FOIA requests and at the same time of the release of the name of officer involved. Later that day, Jackson told CNN and NBC that Wilson did notice that Brown was carrying the cigars as he began driving past them. Jackson said at that point, Wilson "made the connection" that Brown might have been involved in the convenience store robbery.

The Department of Justice had urged the video not be released, saying a release would inflame tension. When asked why the police department released the video, Jackson said that he did so in response to a large number of requests. Ferguson City Attorney Stephanie Karr later said that the release was to comply with the statutory deadline in the "Sunshine Law", which was Missouri's equivalent of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The Huffington Post later printed a response from City Attorney Karr that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had requested "all documentation concerning the events leading up to and including the shooting of Michael Brown" including "video retained by the police department" and that Judicial Watch had requested "all records relating to Michael Brown" dated August 1 through August 9. Salon disputed "that information about the robbery was released because of media requests." KPLR Channel 11 reporter Mandy Murphey had said on camera, when the video was released, that she had requested it. ABC News had also asked for any video and audio recordings associated with the death of Brown.

Jackson responded to questions about the release of the video, with a statement issued by a public relations firm, which said that the police department "had indeed received numerous requests for video footage that showed the strong-arm robbery that preceded the unfortunate incident involving Michael Brown […] Providing a clear, concise picture of the situation was all the police department was seeking in releasing the robbery footage on August 15th."

Jackson drew criticism for his department's release of information, which was described by the Associated Press as "infrequent" and "erratic".

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon criticized the release of the robbery video as an "attempt in essence to disparage the character [of Brown] in the middle of a process" and said that it inflamed the community.

Reactions

See also: Hands up, don't shoot

"Hands up!" sign displayed at a Ferguson protest

A makeshift memorial placed during protests

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."

Anthony Rothert, the legal director for the Missouri branch of the ACLU, who had sued for the release of the incident report describing Brown's shooting, told ABC News in response to the report that "I think it's fair to say that releasing some records, but not releasing others when they're equally public record seems to be an intentional effort to distract the public. They're hiding it for whatever reason ... That leaves the public to imagine why that's being hidden."

Wayne Fisher, a professor with the Rutgers University Police Institute in New Jersey, said that "if the robbery in any way caused the initial contact, it has relevance ... if it didn't, it has none. The use of deadly force in this situation will be authorized if the officer reasonably believed his life was in danger, that question does not appear to be directly related to whether or not Brown was a suspect in a robbery." 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."

Daniel Isom II, a retired St. Louis police chief who now teaches at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, was critical of Jackson's leadership, saying that: "It's clear the Ferguson chief is overwhelmed by the magnitude of this incident. He has been releasing information as he sees appropriate, but maybe not taking into consideration the impact of releasing that information."

Six weeks after the incident, the City of Ferguson released a video in which Jackson apologized to Brown's family for taking too long to remove Brown's body from the street, and to any peaceful protesters who felt he had not done enough to protect their exercise of their constitutional rights. Jackson said, "For any mistakes I've made, I take full responsibility." He also said that he was truly sorry for the Browns' loss of their son. An attorney for Brown's family responded that the apology came at a time when trust in Jackson had "reached an irreversible low".

Calvin Whitaker, the livery service driver under contract with the city and tasked with transporting Brown's remains to the morgue, later told reporters that a major factor in the delay of the retrieval of Brown's body was a lack of scene safety, and explained that he was under advisement by police to remain in their vehicle until the scene could be secured, noting that an individual had recently, at 2:12 p.m., fired shots from the general area of the gathering crowd. 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.

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.

Shooting scene evidence

According to several people involved with the investigation, 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. The location of shell casings and ballistics tests were also consistent with Wilson's account.

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, consistent with a struggle at that location. The blood on Wilson's gun indicated that Brown's hand had been very close to the weapon when it was fired, consistent with Wilson's testimony that there had been a struggle over the weapon.

Diagram of shooting scene

Evidence presented to the grand jury showed that the crime 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.

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.

Grand jury hearing

Prosecutor McCulloch had the authority to bypass a grand jury and take the case to a preliminary hearing, but he chose to present all the evidence to a grand jury, leaving to jurors the decision of what charges might be brought, if any. His spokesperson acknowledged that it is "unusual" that the prosecutor is not asking the grand jury to endorse a specific charge.

On August 20, a county grand jury started hearing evidence in the shooting of Brown in order to decide "whether a crime was committed and whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed it". The case was presented to the grand jury by assistant prosecutors Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley. The grand jury was presented evidence that resulted in 24 volumes totaling more than 5,000 pages of testimony from 60 witnesses during 25 days over the course of three months,

The members of the grand jury were impaneled in May 2014, a few months before the shooting, and included 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 St. Louis suburb of Ferguson was about 66% black. Requests for more information about the jurors were denied by the judge. The jury was not sequestered during the grand jury proceedings.

On August 21, State Senator Jamilah Nasheed presented a petition with 70,000 signatures calling for McCulloch's recusal, 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.

On September 16, Wilson testified before the grand jury for more than four hours, and according to sources with knowledge of the investigation Wilson was "cooperative". Wilson was not obligated to testify. The transcript of Wilson's testimony from September 16 was released after the grand jury's decision was announced.

Media reports characterized Prosecutor McCulloch as "not impartial," as his father was a police officer killed in an incident with an African-American suspect, while his mother, brother, uncle, and cousin had all served with the St. Louis Police Department; Newsweek reported McCulloch's "long history of siding with the police."

On November 17, Governor Nixon declared a state of emergency and activated the Missouri National Guard prior to the grand jury decision.

Grand jury instructions

The instructions to the grand jury given by prosecutors before they started the deliberations, stated that "[…]you must find probable cause to believe that Darren Wilson did not act in lawful self-defense and you must find probable cause to believe that Darren Wilson did not use lawful force in making an arrest. If you find those things, which is kind of like finding a negative, you cannot return an indictment on anything or true bill unless you find both of those things. Because both are complete defenses to any offense and they both have been raised in his, in the evidence. [sic]" In other words, the prosecutors instructed the jury that they had to find not only that there was probable cause to believe Wilson had committed a crime, but also that he did not act in self-defense and that he did not use lawful force to make an arrest.

Before the grand jury began its deliberations, the prosecution gave the jurors an instruction to ignore the Missouri law that concerns police officers and the use of deadly force. Originally, the prosecution provided the State of Missouri's statue which was in conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in in the case of Tennessee v Garner. In the Garner case, the Supreme Court ruled that use of deadly force was unlawful unless the officer believes the suspect poses a significant threat to the officer or others. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, admitted that the grand jury was given misleading information regarding the use of deadly force by police, namely providing instructions to the jury related to a 1979 Missouri statute allowing officers to use force “to effect the arrest or prevent the escape from custody”, which was superseded by the Supreme Court’s holding in Tennessee v. Garner.

Georgetown adjunct law professor and legal analyst Kenneth Jost said that "the grand jurors had in mind the prosecutors' mistake of law that completely excused Wilson", while they listened to Wilson's testimony, and that "[a]sking the grand jurors three months later to ignore the mistake was surely a fruitless attempt to unring the bell." Chad Flanders, a Saint Louis University law professor, laid criticism that Missouri State Law was at odds with the Supreme Court ruling, but believed that state law still is in effect. William Freivogel of the St. Louis Public Radio, indicated that the Garner ruling was a constitutional standard for a civil lawsuit, and that Missouri had not changed the law to criminalize police action that was found to be unconstitutional. In the case that Wilson was indicted by the grand jury and later convicted, the conviction could be challenged on the basis that Missouri law which permits the use of deadly force.

Announcement of no bill

On November 24 at 10:59 P.M., 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."

The Washington Post opinion writer Dana Milbank observed that the Brown jury's refusal to indict Wilson marked the fifth time in 23 years that McCulloch had presented evidence to a grand jury in prosecuting an officer-involved shooting, and that none of these cases had gone to trial.

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.

File:BoiseFergusonRally.jpg

A solidarity rally in Boise, Idaho

In London on November 26, hundreds of protesters demonstrated peacefully outside the US Embassy. A small rally of roughly 100 people was held in solidarity in Boise, Idaho at the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial.

Release of documents

On November 25, 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, following his promise to release the grand jury proceeding's documents.

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 transcrit of his testimony to the grand jury, were released. Video of the two-hour interview by FBI and county police were withheld.

Reception

Commentary by legal analysts

Eric Citron wrote on SCOTUSblog that the grand jury investigation was atypical. Citron argued that, based on the precedent set in United States v. Williams, prosecutors can withhold "substantial exculpatory evidence" in order to obtain an indictment, as the role of the grand jury is not to determine guilt, but rather to decide whether there is enough evidence of a crime; exculpatory evidence can be presented at trial. Citron presented the dissent from Justice Stevens, who said that the prosecutor need not "ferret out and present all evidence that could be used at trial to create a reasonable doubt as to defendant's guilt." Citron then asserted that when a prosecutor wants an indictment, a grand jury process like what happened in Wilson's case would not be expected.

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., director of Harvard Law School's Criminal Justice Institute, said that McCulloch avoided responsibility for the result, calling the case an unusual use of a grand jury's resources. Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker, criticized McCulloch for implementing "a document dump, an approach that is virtually without precedent in the law of Missouri or anywhere else".James A. Cohen, a law professor at Fordham University, said that prosecutors normally present evidence to help grand jurors understand it. He elaborated that McCulloch presented evidence so that the grand jury would return no true bill. Cohen further stated that there were disparities between Wilson's account and his resulting injuries, and questioned Wilson's motivations for pursuing Brown.

William Fitzpatrick, president-elect of the National District Attorneys Association, stated 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.

Ben Trachtenberg, a University of Missouri law professor, said that it is unusual for so much evidence to be presented to a grand jury, as only probable cause need be proven to obtain an indictment and stated that the grand jury saw evidence in favor of Wilson's testimony rather than in favor of securing an indictment.

Dan Abrams, chief legal affairs anchor for ABC News, defended McCulloch, stating that while trial rules of evidence did not apply, McCulloch's lack of specific charges did not make the case wrong. He wrote that the evidence itself likely persuaded the grand jury's decision. He further said that McCulloch was under no obligation to present the case to a grand jury. However, he did criticize the way McCulloch presented the grand jury decision announcement, saying McCulloch "seemed personally invested" in the decision.

Ronald Kuby, an experienced defense attorney, told the New York Daily News that there were discrepancies in Wilson's testimony that were not questioned by the prosecution: Wilson described Brown as verbally aggressive but gave no indication as to his own aggression on his part and said Brown handed off stolen cigarillos to Johnson in the middle of the struggle through the car window. He also criticized the prosecutors for not questioning any details of Wilson's version of events or statements provided by witnesses that supported it, while scrutinizing contradictory witness statements.

Eugene O'Donnell, a former policeman and lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that the handling of the shooting and its aftermath was clumsy and "symptomatic of larger problems of race, class and law enforcement in the country […] Police departments are frequently not good at their core function" and that "Ferguson is not an outlier".

Jay Sterling Silver, a professor at the St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, described McCulloch's announcement of the grand jury decision as "rambling" and "Orwellian", and criticized him for diverting attention from the failure to indict Wilson, for blaming the media for disrupting the grand jury process, and for shifting responsibility to the community to reduce police killings.

Commentary by media sources

Following the grand jury result, there was criticism surrounding aspects over the handling, result and aspects of the grand jury process.

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.

Roger Parloff from Fortune wrote that while when a prosecutor believes that the accused is innocent, the prosecutor does not seek an indictment, but that was not a politically palatable option for McCulloch; taking that course of action would have been "taking all the heat himself, while leaving him no opportunity to explain the basis of his decision to the world", and that in these circumstances, his approach was very reasonable.

On December 16, Michael Smerconish of the The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that McCulloch was no-win position and gave the case to the grand jury despite a lack of evidence to prove probable cause because because the public would not accept a unilateral decision by McCulloch. Smerconish said the grand jury proceedings were atypical because they presented all the evidence and included testimony by the subject of the investigation, Darren Wilson. Smerconish said conflicting witness statements which could support indictments were not backed up by the forensic evidence. Cassell says Caselman's claim is a logical fallacy in which a pool cased, screened for probable cause, are compared to instances where grand juries are operating without the assurance that any criminal conduct is present. Cassel said "The difference in the outcome with the Michael Brown investigative grand jury from a routine federal prosecution is hardly surprising."

Ben Casselman wrote that though not all information was available, the grand jury result was atypical. Casselman cited a Bureau of Justice Statistics report that 11 of 162,000 federal grand jury cases in 2010 declined to return an indictment and said that police officers are rarely indicted by grand juries. Casselman lists the possible reasons as juror bias, prosecutorial bias, and also the possibility that prosecution brought a weak case to the grand jury in response to public pressure.

Harry Bruinius of The Christian Science Monitor cites the 2010 Bureau of Justice Statistics report and other studies which highlight that "US police officers kill approximately 1,000 citizens per year in the line of duty [and on] average, four officers are indicted for causing gun-related deaths". Bruinius attributes the low indictments to numerous factors including the deeply held social compact stemming from the pressures of the job to the jurors' bias to trust the word of the officers. Bruinius says that critics of the system point out the close working relationship between officers and prosecutors in the legal system and have pushed for independent investigations in these cases.

Paul Cassell of the Washington Times examined the process of the case and assessed it against public criticism. Cassell stated that the grand jury did bit deviated from the normal process, except for the prosecutor not making any particular recommendation for charges. Cassell said objections that the grand jury took too long were silent on the parallel federal investigation being run. The argument that too much evidence was presented in to the grand jury, compromising the process, was described by Cassell as an attempt to manufacture a weakness.

Other

According to Justice Department officials as reported by The New York Times, Attorney General Holder was critical of McCulloch announcement of the grand jury decision, particularly the way he invoked Holder's name during the press conference. He also disapproved the time of day when the decision was announced, which usually coincides with heated conflicts between demonstrators and police. Justice Department officials were also critical of the way McCulloch held a televised news conference instead of releasing a statement, and voiced frustrations with McCulloch's criticism of journalists and his recounting of evidence without mentioning Brown being unarmed.

Jeff Roorda, the business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, appearing on the talk show All In with Chris Hayes, said that McCulloch convened a grand jury only to “oblige the public outcry when he didn’t believe there was enough to charge”, and that McCulloch "should have said there's not enough evidence to pursue a charge here. He should have never taken it to the grand jury."

Rudy Giuliani said that the prosecution could have never convicted Wilson at a trial and that the grand jury made the right decision not to indict Wilson. Giuliani went on to state he didn't think the prosecution had probable cause or proof beyond a reasonable doubt because of contradictory witness statements.

Aftermath

Ferguson unrest

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

Main article: 2014 Ferguson unrest

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 late August, Ferguson police officers began wearing body-mounted video cameras donated by Safety Visions and Digital Ally. Fifty cameras were donated and a camera made available to each officer.

On October 18, an altercation between Michael Brown's relatives over the sale of merchandise bearing Brown's likeness resulted in Michael Brown's cousin being beaten with a metal pipe or pole and taken to the hospital for treatment. A witness reported that merchandise and about $1,400 in cash were taken in the course of the incident.

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.

The National Bar Association, which represents black lawyers and judges, filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Public Safety demanding that Wilson's police officer license be revoked, "on the grounds that he committed a criminal act and did so under color of law with disregard for Michael Brown's life or public safety".

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.

Reactions

Federal government

• August 12 – President Obama offered his condolences to Brown's family and community. He stated that the Department of Justice was investigating the situation along with local officials.
• August 14 – In an op-ed in Time Magazine, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said that police forces need to be demilitarized and that "the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown is an awful tragedy" and that "anyone who thinks race does not skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention."
• August 16 – Lacy Clay, the U.S. congressman who represents Ferguson, stated that he had "absolutely no confidence in the Ferguson police, the county prosecutor" to conduct a fair investigation into Brown's death. Clay suggested that the police had released the information about the robbery in order to "negatively influence a jury pool in St. Louis County" and to "assassinate Michael Brown's character". On August 17, Clay called for "a national conversation about how police forces should interact with the African-American community".
• August 18 – President Obama announced that the Department of Justice had launched an independent, federal civil rights investigation into Brown's death.
• August 22 – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in an interview with The National Law Journal that the events at Ferguson and the stop-and-frisk policies in New York City point to a "real racial problem" in the U.S.
• September 4 – Attorney General Holder announced that the Justice Department will investigate Ferguson police force for possible misconduct or discrimination, saying that, "[w]e have determined that there is cause for the Justice Department to open an investigation to determine whether Ferguson police officials have engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the U.S. constitution or federal law."
• December 1 - Barack Obama met with civil rights leaders, elected officials and law enforcement officials from around the country to discuss how communities and police can work together to build trust to strengthen neighborhoods across the country. He also met with cabinet members to discuss a review in August of federal programs that provide equipment to local law enforcement agencies.

State government

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

• August 15 – Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Missouri state senator who represented parts of Ferguson and was tear-gassed during the demonstrations, said in an interview, "It doesn't matter if Michael Brown committed theft or not. That's not the issue. The issue is what happened when Darren Wilson encountered Michael Brown, and when he died—when he was killed. Those are the only facts that are necessary."
• August 19 – Governor Nixon demanded "a vigorous prosecution" of Wilson, a comment that elicited widespread criticism. His Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder condemned Nixon's comment, stating, "It's really heartbreaking to see a man elected to an office that high in our state government, the chief executive of Missouri state government, come out with a statement like that that does prejudge the case." Peter Joy, director of the Washington University School of Law's Criminal Justice Clinic, said that it is highly unusual for an elected official to demand an individual's prosecution.

Third-party

A speech held inside the local church, August 15

Protesters gather at the Ferguson police department

• August 13 – A petition was created on We the People, a petitioning system on the official White House website, calling for a federal law requiring police officers to wear body-mounted video cameras while on duty. As of September 1, the petition had more than 150,000 signatures, exceeding the threshold of 100,000 signatures required for an official response from the White House.
• August 13 – A fundraising webpage was created for Michael Brown's family.
• A similar online fundraising drive for Wilson achieved its desired goal of US$235,000 within four days and was followed by one for Wilson in association with a tax-deductible charity.
• August 14 – National vigils and marches occurred on Thursday evening, in over 100 cities around the U.S., with thousands in attendance. They were organized by @FeministaJones, using Twitter and the #NMOS14 hashtag.
• Hacktivists claiming an association with Anonymous and operating under the codename "Operation Ferguson" organized cyberprotests by setting up a website and a Twitter account. The group promised that if any protesters were harassed or harmed, they would attack the city's servers and computers, taking them offline. City officials said that e-mail systems were targeted and phones died, while the Internet crashed at the City Hall. Prior to August 15, members of Anonymous corresponding with Mother Jones said that they were working on confirming the identity of the police officer who shot Brown and would release his name as soon as they did. On August 14, Anonymous posted on its Twitter feed what it claimed was the name of the officer involved in the shooting. However, police said the identity released by Anonymous was incorrect. Twitter subsequently suspended the Anonymous account from its service.
• August 17 – About 150 people protested in downtown St. Louis in support of Darren Wilson. The protesters said that Wilson had been victimized and that any punishment for him would cause law enforcement officers to be "frightened to do their jobs".
• August 17 – Cornell Brooks, the president of the NAACP, called for a special prosecutor in the case, saying that was needed to restore credibility with Ferguson's black community.
• August 18 – Pew Research published the results of a poll conducted August 14–17 among 1,000 adults, which found stark racial and political divisions in reactions to the shooting. By about four-to-one (80% to 18%), African-Americans said the shooting raised important issues about race, while whites, by 47% to 37%, said the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves. The divide in public opinion was also observed across partisan lines, with 68% of Democrats (including 62% of white Democrats) saying they believe the incident raises important issues about race that merit discussion, while 61% of Republicans said the issue of race has gotten too much attention. Republicans were also more likely than Democrats to view the police response to as appropriate (43%), compared with 56% of Democrats who said police response went too far. Sixty-five percent of Republicans expressed confidence in the investigations into the incident, compared with 38% of Democrats.
• August 28 – Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out, calling for the country to address "inequities" in the criminal justice system.
• November 19 – It was reported that Anonymous had declared cyber war on the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) the previous week, after the KKK had made death threats following the Ferguson riots. They hacked the KKK's Twitter account, attacked servers hosting KKK sites, and started to release the personal details of members.

International

See also: 2014 Ferguson unrest § International reactions

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.

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.

Funeral

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.

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

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.