The False Trinity

The Holy Trinity is one of the central towers of the modern Christian faith.  To not accept the Trinity is seen by main stream Christians as heresy and is something that makes one not, a Christian, unsaved.

I do not believe in the Trinity but have no worries about salvation.  I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, a believer in the one, all powerful God.  I trust that belief in God, trust in Jesus and good works will see me through.  God will save whom God will save.

I believe that the Trinity is a false doctrine and that the single God of the Unitarian Christian Church is the one supported by both scripture and reason.

History

Before the fourth century there was no universal acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity.  There were, as there are now, many who disagreed with the idea of the Trinity.  The Emperor Constantine and the Nicaea Councils basically imposed Trinitarianism on Christianity and it became the official doctrine of the church for over a thousand years.  Dissenters were punished, banished and killed as heretics.

However, the Trinity is NOT supported by the Bible.  Jesus does not say that he is God and refers to God as being greater than he, of having sent him.

The Bible

Scripture is fallible.  It is inexact.  The copies we have today contain translation and copying errors.  For example: did Solomon have four thousand stalls for horses or forty thousand.  One verse gives one value, another the other. One verse says that no one has seen God, another says that There are many other contradictions.   The Bible also contains many factual errors, such as the Earth being unmoving.  At all levels, the Earth moves.  Tectonic plates roam the surface, and the Earth itself travels through space.  The Devil could not show Jesus all the nations of the earth from the top of a high mountain.  Such is impossible on a globe.  There are no waters above and below a solid firmament - the Hebrew word for the firmament is Rakia (a beaten thing, i.e. made of beaten metal)  There are no windows of the sky through which God allows rain to fall or through which He drops snow and hail from his storehouses of the same (Job 38:22) So, we can not take every single word as being absolutely correct.  We have to take the whole of what the Bible tells us and pick off the bits that don't fit with the rest,  Similarly, we consider the words of people actually present as having greater value than those reported of someone else or describing events long ago - e.g. the creation, the story of which is obviously the description of simpler human beings who had little knowledge of the physical world.  Of greatest importance of all are the words of Christ himself.  They are reported by others, obviously, but as Christians, the words of Christ - when repeated by enough witnesses and fitting His overall message - carry the greatest weight.  Yes, even the words of Christ may be discarded if inconsistent.  If someone is reported to say "Never harm an enemy" a thousand times, and that is attested by multiple witnesses, then we can safely say that one person saying "Always kill your enemies", just once, should be treated with great caution and even discarded.  The New Testament is, to Christians, the most important of the two main sections of the Bible.

One also has to be very careful when reading phraseology from the past and interpreting it in modern English.  Language defines how we think and deal with concepts.

The evidence

So what does scripture say about the nature of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Let's start before Jesus was even born as a human man.  "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God".  Only John tells us this. But what doe sit mean?

God is eternal. God has no beginning and no end.  If God had a beginning then where did God come from?  What existed before God? What created God?  In Hebrew, one of the names of God is "El Olam", the everlasting God, forever, perpetual, old, ancient.  "from everlasting to everlasting you are God" says Psalm 90.  1 Timothy "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."  God has always existed.

So then, what does John mean by "In the beginning", the beginning of what?  God has no beginning.  If the Logos was always with God then why not say so?  Since the Logos (the word) was WITH God, it can not be God, the Father.  If it was then why mention it?  But John also says that it was God.  Or did he mean God like, of a similar origin, of the same ethereal substance, from the same realm.  Just because one entity is made of the same 'stuff' as another that does not mean that it is the same entity.  I am made of the same biological material as every other living thing on this planet and yet I am a separate being.  So it seems that the Word was the same stuff as God, was with God, but had a beginning and was not actually God.

What did Jesus say?

John 14:28 "You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.".  Jesus clearly indicates that he is distinct from the Father, that the Father is greater than he is and that the Father is in a different location.  By any reasonable understanding, Jesus is a subservient, distinct being to God the Father.

John 4:34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work"

John 14:28 "My Father is greater than I."

John 20:17 "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."

John 13:3  "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God"

John 5:30 "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" Clearly, Jesus is a special being, sent by God. Indeed here, he claims not to be able to do anything without the will of God.

Jesus did not formulate his message, God did: John 12:49 "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak."

John 17:6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7"Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;"

John 12:29 "For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it".

1 Corinthians 15:28 "And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.".

Jesus is in a special relationship with God, not part of God.  He refers to God being in him and He in God.  However, he also asks that we be allowed to be in God:

"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word; that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. "The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one; I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me"

This passage also indicates that the oft quoted phrase "My father and I are one" (John 10:30) does not mean that God and Jesus are part of a single being.  Jesus asks that human beings all be one too.

Matthew 11:27 "All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him."

"The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand."

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me."  ALSO in me.  God and Jesus are not the same being.

1 Timothy 2:25 "For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human".

Matthew 3:17 "And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."  God is pleased with Jesus and loves him.  God is not in love with himself!

Philipians 2:9-11 "“Wherefore God (the heavenly Father) also hath highly exalted Him (Jesus), and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  The father exalted Jesus to a position of high power.  Jesus is separate from man but also from God from whom his power comes.

Jesus is the anointed one, the Messiah.  But Acts 10:37-38 states that "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."  Yes, Jesus is the Messiah but that means anointed.  We see here that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power.  Jesus has power but that which is given to him by God.  Anointing usually means making holy with oil.  But God anoints Jesus via the Holy Spirit and grants him power.

John 8:17-18 "Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me."  Jesus is saying that the law considers the testimony of two individuals to be truth.  He states that he is telling the truth and his witnesses are himself and the Father.  Again, he and the father are separate beings.

Acts 7:55 "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.".  Jesus is standing at the right hand of God in Heaven.  They are two distinct beings.

Colosians 3:1 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

John 8:40 "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God."

Jesus says that he is not as good as God is.  Matthew 19:17 "But he said to him, “Why do you call me good? There is none good except God alone. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

Matthew 26:39 "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

And on and on.  Jesus is clearly not God.  If he is then he is pleading with himself.

One of the biggest messages of Christians is that God so loved the world that he gave his only son.  Leaving aside the fact that God knew perfectly well that he would raise Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9 "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."), if Jesus is God then God made no sacrifice, gave nothing, since Jesus, according to Trinitarians, is God himself.  If a human gave a son then it is a permanent loss here on Earth.  A loss in which there is no contact between parent and child and no guarantee of ever meeting again.  It MAY be that God will resurrect our loved one, but God decides who will and will not be resurrected.  We can only hope. Most Christians today assume that not everyone will be saved.  Indeed, some extreme Christian groups believe only a small number of the predestined elect will be saved.  A human giving up a child would be an enormous sacrifice.  For God, whether Jesus is God or not, the sacrifice is minimal.  If Jesus is God then there is no sacrifice at all.  If Jesus is the special creation, son of God, then the sacrifice is only slightly more severe.  God knows that He will raise Jesus and, being omnipresent, God is never apart from Jesus, dead or alive.

If Jesus is God then of what relevance is the lineage of Joseph?  It is Mary whose family is relevant if she was impregnated by God, via the Holy Spirit.  Why does the Bible record the family of Joseph if, as   Matthew 1:18 says "When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.".  That is, Mary was pregnant before she and Joseph ever consummated their marriage.  The Bible seems to originally say that Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary but the story of Jesus being created by God within Mary has been tacked on.

So, how do Trinitarians say that Jesus is God?

Well, they quote the my father and I are one example.  But, as above, being one does not mean being the same being.  Jesus asks that all humans become one also.  We claim to be one in the body of Christ.  We are not literally one.

Jesus forgave sins, and only God can forgive sins.  No, God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and power.  He delegated power to Jesus just as Jesus delegated power to Peter (Matthew 18:18 ""Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.".  That doesn't mean that Peter became Jesus or that he became God.  Jesus granted power to Peter.  In the same way, the Centurian in the Roman army is not the Emperor when he commands men or conquered peoples.  He is a delegate of the Emperor.  The Emperor grants him the right to do certain things.  God grants powers to Jesus who delegates them further to Peter.  Matthew  9:6 "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house"

One of the reasons that Jesus is supposed to have to be God is so that his sacrifice is great enough to appease God.  This is one argument that makes little sense.  Jesus is not just God-like but actual God.  So God sacrifices himself to himself to appease himself.  That is complete nonsense.

Jesus existed before the world.  This is irrelevant.  The word, logos, Jesus was with God before the world was made.  That simply means that the being Jesus predates the world, as explained above, it says nothing about God and Jesus being the same being.

"baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" is supposed to indicate that God, Jesus and Holy Ghost are one.  This is only one interpretation.  This is a list of three items in whose 'name' people are baptized.  That doesn't mean that they are all the same being.  It does not even mean that the Holy Ghost is a person.  The Irish Sea has a name but it isn't a person.  Spain is the name of a country but land was claimed in its name.  Astronauts left a plaque on the moon in the name of all mankind.  Human beings are not all one entity but individuals that make up a group.  People can logically be baptized in the name of the group.

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  This is supposed to indicate that Jesus is God.  But Jesus says "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.".  It is claimed, as if self evident, that only God can reanimate the dead.  If God gives Jesus power then Jesus can do anything including raising the dead.  Jesus himself says that even we could raise the dead if our faith is strong enough: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Nothing will be impossible for you.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”  The Word was with God, the Word had a beginning. The Word may have been god-like but it was not THE source of all power - God the Father.

John 17:5 "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."  Jesus existed before the world began but he asks for the Father to glorify him as he was glorified when Jesus was with the Father.  He speaks to another entity, the presence of which gives him glory. Similarly, John 17:24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world."  This again shows that Jesus was older than the world, (He may have been the mechanism or agent, by which the world was made) but he was given his people, God loved him.  He was a separate entity.

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works."  This is supposed to show that Jesus and God are one, but I can not see how.  The idea of 'in' indicating sameness is simply inconsistent.  We speak of Jesus Christ being in us, or say that we are one in the body of Christ.  As above Jesus asks God that all who follow him be allowed to be one with the father.  Being one does not mean being the same being.  The father acts through Jesus.  Jesus says perfectly clearly that he does not speak with his own authority but with that of the Father within him.  We all have Jesus, the father and potentially, the Holy Spirit working within us.  That does NOT make us GOD, so why does God or the Spirit acting through Jesus make him God?

If God and Jesus are equal then why does Jesus not know the day and the hour that the world will pass away?  He says in Mark 24:36 that no one knows the hour except his Father.

What is the Holy Spirit?

The third element of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit, an entity that has no individual name.  Jesus is absolutely more clear about the distinction between himself and the Holy Spirit than he is about the distinction between himself and the "Father".

John 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.".  Jesus sees the Holy Spirit as a separate being that he, Jesus, will send from the Father that will reveal truth of Jesus.

John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.".  The Spirit appears to be meant as some sort of entity that will reveal information to the followers of Jesus and remind them of the things that Jesus taught,  It is the Helper, the other comforter.  It is not God, is not Jesus and it doesn't have its own name.

John 14:16-17 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."  Clearly, Jesus asks God, a third party, for the Spirit of Truth to be sent to live in his followers.

It is truly bizarre to argue that Jesus is praying to himself, for himself to send himself to live in his followers.

Acts 2:33 "Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."  Jesus sits, separately at the right hand of God.  He is given the promised Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not a person but some sort of entity given to Jesus.  It is poured out on the followers, granting foresight, power and the ability to speak in tongues.  Pourer and poured are not the same thing.

Titus 3:6 "He poured out this Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior"

If the Holy Spirit is a separate conscious entity then why does Paul, who wrote so much of the New Testament, ignore 'him'?  In all epistles Paul refers to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.In all cases he sends his readers "grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ".  The wording is virtually identical in all thirteen epistles although in a couple Paul augments grace and peace with mercy.  If there is a trinity of co-equal beings then why does Paul only ever refer to two of them?


Conclusions

The fact that Jesus has all authority in Heaven and Earth, does not mean that he is God.  It just means that God has delegated power to Jesus.  This is the same as a reagent acting on behalf of a King or an ambassador doing the same.

It is obvious through out the Bible that we learn of two main actors, God the father and Jesus the 'son'.  The Holy Spirit seems to be some sort of spiritual force that acts in the world.  It can manifest as a dove (as in when Christ was baptized) and it can inhabit the body of followers to give power and understanding.  If it is a separate, sentient being then followers are basically possessed.  Similarly, if this sentient being is what makes people aware of the truth of God then people are not responsible for their own actions.  Why does the spirit, unless it is weak, not simply reveal the truth to everyone?

For three hundred years after Christ, many Christians believed that Jesus was a separate being to God.  Only in the fourth century was the Trinitarian doctrine imposed and disbelievers labelled heretics and punished.  Prior to that, many people recognized the Biblical support for the Unitarian Christian belief.  there is one God.  "Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is ONE!"

God wishes us to understand God, to know God.  But the Catholic Church and its offshoots have maintained that the doctrine of the Trinity is the supreme mystery at the heart of Christianity.  Why the mystery?  Although some of the writings of John might be taken to indicate Jesus was God, why didn't God just tell people straight out in the Old Testament?  Why were the Jews not corrected when God told them of himself?  Why did Jesus not come straight out and say, I am God?

The most that could be claimed is that Jesus and God exist together in God like state.  Jesus was the Word - according to John only of the four Gospel writers.  If this was such an important concept and God influenced the creation of scripture then why did only John write of it?  The authorship of John is disputed and possibly occurred after all the others.  It also has a very different account of the last supper  to that presented in the other Gospels.  Probably written in the late first century it is a developed theology written between 50 and 70 years after the death of Christ.

All the evidence appears to support the idea that the three elements of the Trinity are separate beings.  Their interactions indicate that they are not aspects of the same being.  Jesus intercedes with God on our behalf while seated at the right hand of God.  If they are both in Heaven then why does Jesus need to communicate with God?

The only thing that we can possibly say about Jesus was that he was a prexisting entity that was 'transmitted' to the physical world by the medium of the Holy Spirit, God's power acting in the world. Jesus is a powerful being, granted power by God, and reanimated after crucifixion by God - exactly as scripture says.  But Jesus is less than God.  All power comes from the single God.  Jesus had a beginning.  God was and will be, eternal.

Michael Brown Shooting

Ok. I've read the reports and testimony related to the Michael Brown case and I still think the Grand Jury decision was wrong.  Not that I say Officer Wilson is guilty of murder but that he should have faced trial for a more stringent analysis of the facts; to allow more cross examination and challenge, rather than simple fact finding.

Some of the accusations against Officer Wilson are ridiculous.  Most of the witnesses confirmed some of his story, most refute other parts.  Physical evidence supports his statements concerning the initial confrontation.

People are confusing creatures.  Some of the witness statements were totally contradictory.  In giving evidence to the grand jury, some people admitted that earlier statements to police and the FBI were lies.  Some changed their minds, possibly due to direct influence of others, possibly due to contamination of their memories by the stories of others, the media etc. Some accounts, from relatives and friends of Michael Brown, directly contradict both physical evidence and the vast majority of witness statements.  Further confusion is sown by the fact that, although their statements seem reasonable, a number of people were related to or were friends of Michael.   The possibility of deliberate falsehood can’t be ruled out but there is also the confounding factor of human emotion.

Some of the facts are known to everyone, some are not - if one hasn't followed the story closely. So, I'll start at the beginning:

Michael Brown appears to have stolen the cigarillos and intimidated the shop keeper.  We have seen both video and have the testimony of Michael's friend who was with him at the time: Dorian Johnson. Dorian confirms the theft and intimidation.

Brown was 18, Johnson 22.  They were not the kids that some like to portray them as.  While younger, at 6 ft 4 and weighing 292 pounds, Brown was a large man, not a kid.

The two were walking, single file, down the middle of the road after they left the store.  Right down the middle, on the central lines, disrupting traffic.

Officer Wilson was returning from attending to a call in the apartment complex.  He saw they men in the road and told them to get on the side walk.  He then started to drive on.  He heard the call go out about a robbery at the store and saw the two men fit the descriptions of those thought to be involved.  Reversing, he blocked the path of the men, nearly hitting them with the speed of his reversal.  A number of witnesses describe the squeal of the tires on the police SUV.

After an exchange of unpleasantness that it is not necessary for me to go into, the officer and Brown became involved in a tussle, or tug of war, as many witnesses describe it.  Some witnesses describe Brown as trying to pull away, others say he was leaning into the vehicle.  Either way, there was a definite altercation occuring via the police vehicle window.  Virtually all witnesses to this stage of events confirm the officer’s statement that he was involved in a violent struggle between himself and Brown through the window. 12 agree while 3 do not.  Officer Wilson claims that Brown was punching him, and had a grip on the back of his neck.  Wilson also claims that Brown tried to get his gun.  In self defense, Wilson states that he fired his gun, twice, in the vehicle.  He tried a number of other times to fire but his gun did not go off.  No fault was found with the gun.  One logical conclusion, as the firearms examiner agreed in testimony, was that something – clothing or a hand, was blocking the mechanism of the gun.

Witness testimony and physical evidence largely supports Wilson’s account of this stage.  However, there is one discrepancy.  Virtually all witnesses saw an altercation.  All witnesses report hearing shots in the police vehicle.  However, most of them report only a single shot.  On October 7th , a van driver visiting the area, gave testimony that she stopped facing the police vehicle.  She reported 2 shots.  Most other witnesses were much further away.  Most witnesses report Brown’s hands going in and out of the police vehicle but do not mention punches.  On October 16th, Witness 34 said they saw actual punches.  Witnesses had different views of the scene, of course.  They also saw things at different times.  While many saw the altercation with Brown leaning into the car and his arms going in and out, others saw him at a different stage, trying to pull away.

The physical evidence supports Officer Wilson’s account of this stage of the events.  Crucially, Brown’s DNA was found on the Officer’s gun.  Brown’s DNA was also found on the left side of Officer Wilson’s uniform at all levels – shirt and pants.  That can only be explained is Brown being well into the left side of the police vehicle (American vehicle, driver on the left, left side of uniform facing Brown).  To get DNA on the officer’s pant leg, Brown must have had at least his arm reached down into the vehicle and against the officers leg, exactly as Wilson claimed.  Wilson’s DNA was found on Brown’s hand.  Although not major, the physical evidence from Wilson himself shows scratches to the back of his neck and minor bruising to his RIGHT cheek.  None of Wilson’s DNA was found beneath Brown’s finger nails.  The discrepancy mentioned earlier relates to the injury to the cheek.  If Brown was to Wilson's left, reaching in and hitting into the drivers side window - how did Wilson end up with the bruising on his RIGHT cheek?  I suppose that it is possible that Wilson turned to face Brown full on while still seated but it seems unlikely.

In my opinion then, Brown was aggressive that morning and responded aggressively to Officer Wilson.  He got involved in a physical altercation with the officer and, as Wilson said, appears to have got a grip on Wilson’s gun at one point.   Again, just my opinion, a police officer struggling alone with a physically bigger assailant, willing to attack an officer and trying to get his gun, was reasonable to fire his weapon.  He had no taser.  His flashlight, that he considered using as a club, was on the passenger side of the vehicle and he would have had to expose his side to further attack to reach it.  His mace canister was in the left of his belt, toward Brown.  He defended himself with his left hand, against an attack from his left, while he obtained his gun from his right side with his free right hand.  I think discharging his weapon was justified at this stage.

Michael Brown then moved away from the vehicle at speed.  Whether due to gun shot injury or simply his size, most witnesses describe him as moving at a fast jog, rather than a run.  Johnson, the friend with Brown, describes blood on Brown as he moves away.  So, Brown appears to have either been hit with a round fired by the officer or by the glass in the door as a bullet passed through it – the glass of the window that was down in the door.  At autopsy, Brown is found to have a gun shot to his right lateral chest.  Running away from, or toward the officer is unlikely to have exposed Brown's right side to Wilson's gun.  It is likely, confirmed by Johnson's statement, that Brown was hit at the car.

Brown doesn’t run very far.  But what happens next is described completely differently by the majority of witnesses, compared to Wilson’s statement.  He maintains that he did not shoot at Brown as he ran away.   15 witnesses assert that Wilson fired on Brown as Brown was running away.  5 reported that he did not.  Of those that say he did, the majority had a good view, others had only partial or obscured views.  A bullet wound to Brown’s right arm may be significant here.  One bullet entered through the ventral side of the arm and exited through the dorsal (wound 6 & 7 entrance and exit wounds). That is, it entered the inner arm and came straight out the back.  I can only think of two scenarios in which this would happen.  Either it hit the inner arm of a man running away when his arm was behind him, or it hit the inner arm of a man facing the shooter with his arms raised…  Unless all 15 witnesses were lying, it appears that Wilson fired on the fleeing Brown, a young, unarmed man who was no threat to Wilson.

All witnesses who heard the shots, heard three sets.  One or two in the car, a series of 4 or 5 shots, a pause and then another series of shots. In all 12 shots were actually fired.  Six hit Brown.

Wilson says that Brown stopped, turned to come toward him and then he, Wilson, opened fire the first time.  He maintains that Brown continued to advance and he fired another sequence of shots that killed Brown.  The van driver witness confirms Wilson's statement.  Wilson maintains that he told Brown to stop multiple times.  Two witnesses confirm this.  Most do not.

Physical evidence also supports Wilson's story of Brown having come back toward him.  Blood spatter, on the ground shows that Brown appeared to have run about 200ft from the police vehicle and then returned about 20ft back toward Wilson.  Wilson states that he was backing up as Brown approached and some witnesses agree with this.

Most witnesses who saw this part of the scenario say that Wilson fired the first set of multiple shots while Brown was fleeing.  Brown appears to be hit – a number of witnesses describe him jerking or flinching.  Brown had the shot to the arm and a number of other gunshot injuries that might have been inflicted from behind – the tip of his thumb for example.  The van driver witness, mentioned above, supports Wilson’s account as do four others.  However, one of these was turning his car around and trying to ‘get out of Dodge’ at the time.  Another was a woman going into a friends house, who was parking her car and checking her cell at the time.

Witnesses report Brown stopping turning and raising his arms.  15 witnesses assert that Brown had his hands raised.  Only two said that he did not.  This is the other time that the bullet could have struck Brown’s arm.  So it appears that Brown has his arms raised in some fashion.  Some witnesses say his arms were raised in the traditional action of surrender.  The majority say that his arms were raised outward with his hands level with his face, palms facing Wilson.

Two witnesses say that the raising of the arms was a reflex response to being shot, the flinch or jerk as it is described.

5 witnesses state that Brown moved his hands to his waist.  2 say that he did not.  Brown had no weapon but did he make a move - possibly to pull up his shorts - that could have been interpreted by Wilson as a move toward a weapon?

Some of the witnesses stated that they saw things that were impossible.  A number, primarily friends and relatives of Brown, stated that Brown was on his knees with his arms raised up in the air when Wilson walked over to him, shot him in the head at point blank range and then stood over Brown, firing multiple rounds into him as he lay on the ground.  However, with the possible exception of the arm shot and one or two other bullet grazes, all significant shots came from the front.  This is significant because all witnesses stated that Brown fell on his face and was not moved.  If that is the case then it is physically impossible for the officer to have “finished off” Brown  with multiple rounds as he lay on the floor.  There was also no physical evidence, powder burns etc, of shots being fired at close range.  With the exception of these few statements by relatives, virtually all witnesses stated that the distance between Wilson and Brown was between 10 and 15 feet, as Wilson also said.  This execution scenario can therefore be discounted.

Half  the witnesses say that Brown was already collapsing or kneeling when Wilson fired the last volley of shots.  Some of these people describe Brown as disorientated after the first volley of shots.    Unfortunately, it was not possible for medical examiners to decide, for most shots, which shots hit Brown when or in what order.  The fatal, head shot (to the very top of the head) must obviously have been last.  If the first shots, the ones made in the police vehicle, actually wounded Brown then that might explain why he was slow and, as two witnesses described, out of breath, having run only a short way.  Brown had four major bullet wounds.  One to the head was instantly fatal and must have been made in the last round otherwise Brown would have collapsed immediately.  One wound to the central forehead while not immediately fatal, would have blinded Brown in one eye and caused immediate major trauma.  It entered, moved down through the eye and face and then exited at the jaw.  It was a severe injury that would almost certainly have stopped him.  Two wounds were made to the chest.  One to the upper front chest and the other two the right lateral chest.  Dorian Johnson reported Brown was shot at the car.  Brown’s right chest is the most likely impact point, if he was in fact hit at that time, as he reached into the car and grappled with Wilson.  This wound hit the lower lobe of his right lung and might explain why he didn’t run far or quickly.

Unless he was an incompetent shot, some of the first volley of rounds – in Wilson’s own description - must have hit Michael in the chest.  They can’t have been the head shots.  No one saw blood and one of the the head shots was lethal.  Wilson himself states that the last shot was one to the head.  So, hit in the lungs, Brown is said to run toward Wilson.   Witnesses describe Michael staggering and stumbling as he moves toward Wilson, trying to maintain balance and stay upright.  The blood evidence on the ground shows that Michael managed to move about 20ft toward Wilson.  A number of the witnesses describe Michael collapsing to his knees and Wilson firing as Michael was going down.  The last shot to hit Brown was to the very top of his head.  This caused major brain damage (according to the autopsy reports) and was instantly fatal.

While it is apparent that Brown was moving back to Wilson, to me it is difficult to imagine a man already shot in the chest, possibly in the head, running at the officer with such force that he can propel himself at an angle which presents the very top of his head to be hit by the instantly fatal bullet.  This is particularly true of a heavy man.  In his testimony, Wilson says that when the bullet hit Brown’s head, Brown's expression instantly changed.  That’s when he knew the threat was ‘neutralized’.  If Brown was hit in the top of his head and fell to the floor face down then how did Wilson see his face to know that his expression changed?  It is at least possible that the last shots to hit Brown occurred as he was already collapsing to the floor.

I don’t doubt that Wilson’s account of the struggle in the car is mostly correct.  All the evidence supports it.  I don’t say that Wilson murdered Brown but I believe the Grand Jury decision was wrong and that a trial should be held to explore the issues more thoroughly.

Dog Attack Fatalities USA 2000-2013

Fatalities reported in 2000
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
February	Rottweiler	Justin Tabner	5 years
June	Pack of up to 20 dogs	Dorothy Stewart	71 years
June	German shepherd-Husky mix and Pit bull-Labrador retrievermix	Jasmine Dillashaw	18 day
October	Pomeranian	Girl - name withheld	6 weeks
Unknown	Pit bull	Ramani Virgil	2 years
Fatalities reported in 2001
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
26-Jan	Perro de Presa Canario	Diane Whipple	33 years
March	Rottweiler	Joshua Brown[145]	3 years
March	Unknown	Newborn girl Small	Newborn
5-Mar	Pack of stray dogs	Rodney McAllister	10 years
April	Rottweiler	Jovanna King	1 Month
June	Rottweiler	Kyle Anthony Ross	5 years
11-Jun	Pit bull	Tyran Moniz-Hilderbrand	18 Months
August	Mixed breed dogs (possibly including Rottweiler, Pit bull,Beagle, and Labrador retriever)	Donald Bryson Shumpert	2 years
August	Rottweiler	Sierra Clayton	3 years
29-Oct	Rottweiler	Kristin Ann Jolley	1 year
November	German Shepherd and/orGerman Shepherd mix	Alexander Jarred Bennett	3 day
November	Husky (2)	Josie Simone Hearon	3 weeks
December	Rottweiler	Tristen Gambrel	3 years
Unknown	Chow	William Kirsh	59 years
Fatalities reported in 2002
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
7-Feb	Rottweiler and 2 Rottweiler-Pug mixes	Genoe Novak	6 years
14-Feb	Rottweiler	Alicia Clark	10 years
April	Rottweiler	Victoria Morales	5 years
1-Jun	German Shepherd	Colter Kumpost	4 years
October	Rottweiler	Girl- no name released	23 months
December	Husky mix	Unknown	2 weeks
Fatalities reported in 2003
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
March	Rottweiler	Lily Krajewski	2 years
March	Rottweiler	Wesley Swindler	3 years
7-Mar	Rottweiler	Jennifer Nicole Davis	5 years
24-Mar	Pit bull	Tre'sean Forsman	3 years
26-Mar	Rottweiler	Vivian Anthony
April	Malamute-Wolf hybrid	Andre Angel Thomas	13 month
16-May	American Staffordshire Terrier[170] (Pit bull)	Bonnie Page	75 years
23-May	Stray dogs	Cedric Edmonds	37 years
20-Jun	Pit bull	Somer Clugston	2 years
August	Rottweiler	Samantha Grace Bauld[174]	3 years
7-Sep	Doberman Pinscher	Valerie DeSwart	67 years
2-Oct	Great Dane	Makayla Paige Sinclair	2 years
20-Nov	Pit bull (3)	Jennifer Brooke	40 years
12-Dec	Pit bull-mix or Labrador-pit bull mix (6)	Alice Broom	81 years
Fatalities reported in 2004
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
13-Jan	Mixed-breed dog (Pit bull-type)	Nathan Roy Hill	3 years
21-Feb	Beagle-mix	Truston Heart Liddle	17 months
11-Mar	Mixed-breed dog	Madison Carson	2 years
April	Rottweiler	Samuel Trucks	2 years
3-Apr	Pit bull	"John Doe"	16 months
16-Apr	Pit bull (4)	Roddie Dumas, Jr.	8 years
16-Apr	Pit bull-mix	Myles Leakes	4 years
24-Apr	Bullmastiff–German Shepherd mix	John Streeter	8 years
May	Rottweiler	Leta Ward	65 years
July	Bullmastiff	Ryker Schweitzer	7 years
6-Aug	Pit bull (6)	Mary DeLacy	87 years
1-Sep	Pit bull-Labrador Retrievermix	Isaiah Calandis Smith	18 months
5-Oct	Mixed-breed dog	Jose Diaz	5 weeks
8-Oct	Pit bull-mix	Anton Brown	8 years
13-Dec	Pit bull-mix	Kamryn Billingsly	One month
13-Dec	Mongrel (Pit bull-type)	Annilee McKinnon	5 years
Fatalities reported in 2005
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
2-Jan	Mixed breed dog and Pit bullmix[199]	Tyler Babcock	6 years
28-Jan	Pit bull,	Lydia Chaplin	14 years
	Mixed-breed dog
4-Feb	Pit bull	Barbara Pilkington	70 years
8-Mar	Pit bull	Dorothy Sullivan	82 years
15-Mar	Rottweiler,	Sandra Sanchez	32 years
	Rottweiler-mix
5-Apr	Pit bull	Cassidy Jeter	6 years
10-Apr	Rottweiler–German Shepherd-mix	Robert Schafer	4 years
13-Apr	American Bulldog and/or "American Terrier" and/or Pit bull and/or Cane Corso[208][209]	Ernie Assad	82 years
14-Apr	Mixed-breed dog	Laverne Ford	74 years
2-May	Rottweiler	Asia Turner	4 years
6-May	Husky,	Samantha Black	2 years
	Alaskan Malamute
7-May	Alaskan Malamute	Kate-Lynn Logel	7 years
10-May	"part Pit bull"[217]	Lorinze Reddings	42 years
15-May	Labrador Retriever-mix,	Julia Beck	87 years
	Dachshund
17-May	Pit bull	Arianna Fleeman	2 years
3-Jun	Pit bull	Nicholas Faibish	12 years
1-Jul	American Bulldog,	Boyd Fiscus	83 years
	Neapolitan Mastiff,
	Border Collie
4-Jul	Pit bull	Dazavious Williams	5 weeks
13-Jul	Siberian Husky	Alexis McDermott	6 days
2-Aug	Rottweiler	Cassandra Garcia	16 months
14-Oct	Pit bull,	Mike Gomez	86 years
	Schnauzer
15-Oct	Rottweiler	Sydney Akin	6 years
6-Nov	Pit bull	Kylee Johnson	14 months
18-Nov	Pit bull Mixes	Hulon Barbour	60 years
24-Nov	Unknown dogs	Roberto Aguilera	64 years
26-Nov	Pit bull–Rottweiler mix	Lillian Styles	76 years
6-Dec	Bullmastiff	Mary Stiles	91 years
30-Dec	Pit bull	Cody Adair	4 years
Fatalities reported in 2006
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
January	Golden Retriever	Kaitlyn Hassard	6 years
9-Jan	Rottweiler	Ashton Lee Scott	11 months
4-Feb	Bullmastiff	Conner Lourens	7 years
24-Feb	Rottweiler	Dominic Giordano	4 years
14-Mar	Pit bull	Charles Gilbert Dalton	52 years
20-Mar	Rottweiler	Quillan Cottrell	3 years
10-Apr	Pit bull mix	"John Doe"	Unknown
2-May	Pit bull and up to 3 others	Juan Garcia	53
6-May	Mixed breed	Dianna Acklen	60 years
11-May	Pit bull	Raymond Tomco	78 years
7-Jun	Pit bull dogs	Shaun McCafferty	27 years
17-Jun	Pit bull	Javelin Anderson	15 months
22-Jun	Rottweiler	Gemma Carlos	2 years
17-Jul	Wolfdog	Sandra Piovesan	50 years
18-Jul	Pit bull	Brandon Coleman	25 years
25-Jul	Pit bull,	Mariah Puga	3 years
	Rottweiler
27-Jul	Pit bull	Jimmie McConnell	71 years
31-Jul	Pit bull	John Brannaman	81 years
18-Aug	Perro de Presa Canario	Shawna Willey	30 years
29-Aug	Pit bull	Frank Baber	49 years
29-Aug	Boxer	Pablo Flietes	52 years
3-Oct	Pit bull mix	Jonathan Martin	2 years
3-Oct	Rottweiler	Julius Graham	2 years
8-Oct	Pit bull	Jeannine Fusco	44 years
29-Oct	Pit bull	David McCurry	41 years
3-Nov	Rottweiler	Ariel Pogue	2 years
3-Nov	Mixed breeds	Matthew Davis	10 years
4-Nov	Pit bull	Allen Young	22 months
6-Nov	Rottweiler	Louis Romero, Jr.	2 years
9-Nov	Pit bull	Richard Adams	47 years
13-Nov	Rottweiler	James Eisaman	40 years
21-Nov	Mixed-breed dog and Pit bull-mix	Pedro Rios	4 years
Fatalities reported in 2007
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
12-Jan	Pit bull	Amber Jones	10 years
15-Jan	German Shepherd	Linda Mittino	69 years
24-Jan	Rottweiler	Matthew Johnson	6 years
28-Jan	Rottweiler	Taylor Kitlica	18 months
16-Feb	Pit bull-mix	Robynn Bradley	2 years
	English Mastiff-mix
16-Mar	Golden Retriever[276]	Pamela Rushing	50 years
	Catahoula Bulldog
	and possibly Australian Shepherd
22-Mar	Pit bull	Carolina Sotello	2 years
23-Apr	Pit bull	Brian Palmer	2 years
13-May	Pit bull	Celestino Rangel	90 years
25-May	German Shepherd Dog,Doberman Pinscher	Magdalena Silva	95 years
26-May	Unknown dogs	Carshena Benjamin	71 years
26-May	Pit bull and Pit Bull mix	Dandre Fisher	3 years
17-Jun	Chow-Chow mix	Phyllis Carroll	63 years
29-Jun	Mixed-breed dogs	Mary Bernal	63 years
12-Jul	Rottweiler	Tiffany Pauley	5 years
23-Jul	Siberian Husky	Trey Paeth	11 months
29-Jul	Pit bull	Sabin Jones-Abbott	6 years
16-Aug	Pit bull	Zachary King, Jr.	7 years
18-Aug	Chow Chow-Mix	Elijah Rackley	15 months
31-Aug	Pit bull	Scott Warren	6 years
12-Sep	Rottweiler	Kylie Cox	4 months
13-Sep	American Bulldog	Cheryl Harper	56 years
13-Sep	American Bulldog	Edward Gierlach	91 years
25-Sep	German Shepherd Dog-mix	Karson Gilroy	2 years
2-Oct	Pit bull	Tina Canterbury	42 years
5-Oct	Wolfdog	"Jane Doe"	73 years
15-Oct	Pack of 5-7 mixed breed dogs, some of which may have beenPit bull-mixes[298]	Rosalie Bivens	65 years
5-Nov	American Bulldog-Mastiff mix	Tori Whitehurst	4 years
7-Nov	Pit bull	Seth Lovitt	11 years
12-Nov	Pit bull	Jennifer Lowe	21 years
4-Dec	Pit bull	Cora Lee Suehead	61 years
13-Dec	Pit bull	Holden Jernigan	2 years
17-Dec	Pit bull	Blanche Brodeur	76 years
25-Dec	Pit bull or Pit bull mix[306]	Kelly Caldwell	45 years
Fatalities reported in 2008
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
4-Jan	Doberman Pinscher	Andrew Stein	8 months
17-Jan	Jack Russell Terrier	Justin Mozer	6 weeks
20-Jan	Pit bull	Kelli Chapman	24 years
28-Apr	Husky-mix	Abraham Tackett	23 months
14-May	Pit bull	Julian Slack	3 years
18-May	Pit bull	Tanner Monk	7 years
18-Jun	Pit bull	Pablo Hernandez	5 years
28-Jun	Golden Retriever-mix	Lorraine May	74 years
	Australian Shepherd-mix
22-Jul	Pit bull	Tony Evans, Jr.	3 years
25-Jul	Old English Sheepdog Mix	Addison Sonney	14 months
28-Jul	Labrador Retriever	Zane Earles	2 months
14-Aug	Pit bull	Robert Howard	35 (est.)
14-Aug	Pit bull	Isis Kreiger	6 years
17-Aug	Pit bull	Henry Piotrowski	90 years
4-Sep	Pit bull	Luna McDaniel	83 years
9-Sep	Husky	Alexis Hennessy	6 days
12-Sep	Pit bull	Cenedi Carey	4 months
22-Sep	Husky	"Jane Doe"	3 days
26-Sep	Pit bull-mix[326]	Katya Todesco	5 years
5-Oct	Mixed breed	Iopeka Liptak	13 months
31-Oct	Pit bull	Chester Jordan	62 years
26-Nov	Terrier-mix[330][331] "also might be a type of pit bull"[332]	Alexander Adams	2 years
19-Dec	107-lb, 4-year-old male Pit bull-Mastiff mix and 52-lb, 6-year-old female Pit bull[335]	Gerald Adelmund	60 years
Fatalities reported in 2009
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
6-Jan	Pit bull	Cheyenne Peppers	5 years
11-Jan	Rottweiler	Alex Angulo	4 years
15-Jan	Rottweiler	Brooklynn Milburn	4 years
19-Jan	Husky	Olivia Rozek	3 weeks
19-Jan	A part-Rottweiler, Mixed breed dog[342]	Brianna Shanor	8 years
4-Mar	Chow-Chow–Golden Retriever mix	"Jane Doe"	2 weeks
16-Mar	Mastiff	Hill Williams	38 years
21-Mar	Unknown dog	Dolly Newell	80 years
22-Mar	Husky	Dustin Faulkner	3 years
26-Mar	Pit bull	Tyson Miller	2 years
31-Mar	Pit bull	Izaiah Cox	7 months
10-Apr	Boxer	Michael Landry	4 years
10-Apr	Mixed breed (11)	Gordon Lykins	48 years
13-Apr	Blue Heeler–Australian Shepherd mix	David Whitenack, Jr.	41 years
22-Apr	Pit bull-mix	Leonard Lovejoy, Jr.	11 months
15-Jun	Pit bull	Justin Clinton	10 years
27-Jun	Pit bull mix, Collie mix	Gabrial Mandrell-Sauerhage	3 years
10-Aug	Pit bull	Carter Delaney	20 years
14-Aug	Pack of sixteen straymongrels	Sherry Schweder	65 years
14-Aug	Pack of sixteen straymongrels	Lothar Schweder	77 years
15-Aug	Pit bull	"John Doe"	3 days
15-Aug	Pit bull	Jasmine Deane	23 months
23-Oct	Mixed-breed dog—possiblyAkita and Pit bull-mix[361]	Colton Smith	17 months
28-Oct	Pit bull	Matthew Clayton "Booter" Hurt	2 years
5-Nov	Pit bull	Destiny Knox	16 months
24-Nov	Boxer mix and/or a Mixed breed dog[367]	Karen Gillespie	53 years
30-Nov	Pit bull	Rosie Humphries	85 years
4-Dec	Pit bull	Lowell Bowden	70 years
12-Dec	Rottweiler-Labrador Retriever mix[371]	Dallas Walters	20 months
12-Dec	Alaskan Malamute	Theresa Ellerman	49 years
22-Dec	Weimaraner	Liam Peck	2 years
Fatalities reported in 2010
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
9-Jan	Pit bull	Omar Martinez	3 years
17-Jan	Mixed-breed dog or Pit bull	Johnny Wilson	56 years
8-Feb	Rottweiler	Carolyn Baker	63 years
12-Feb	Unknown dog(s) (Pit bull)	Anastasia Bingham	6 years
18-Feb	Siberian Husky	Robert D. Hocker	11 days
19-Feb	Redbone Coonhound	Kenneth Bock	57 years
20-Feb	Pit bull	Christine Staab	38 years
20-Feb	American Bulldog	Violet Serenity Haaker	3 years
23-Feb	Pit bull	"Jane Doe"	5 days
28-Feb	Rottweiler	Ashlynn Anderson	4 years
4-Mar	Pit bull	Ethel Horton	65 years
8-Mar	Rottweiler	Justin Lopez	9 months
14-Apr	Pit bull-mix	Thomas Carter, Jr.	7 days
20-May	Sled Dog	Krystal Brink	3 years
25-May	Rottweiler	Hao Yun “Eddie” Lin	33 years
28-May	Pit bull	Nathan Aguirre	2 years
3-Jun	Pit bull	Savannah Gragg	9 years
15-Jun	Bullmastiff-mix	Michael Winters	30 years
	Pit bull–Boxer mix
	Rottweiler-mix
12-Jul	German Shepherd-Huskymix and Labrador retriever	Kyle Holland	5 years
20-Jul	Pit bull	William Parker	71 years
22-Jul	Pit bull	Jacob Bisbee	2 years
31-Jul	German Shepherd Dog-mix	Aaron Carlson	2 years
19-Aug	Unknown dog(s)	Tracey Payne	46 years
22-Aug	Pit bull	Jerry Yates	69 years
25-Aug	Pit bull	Jason Walter	7 years
	"mixed-breed Shepard"[412]
25-Aug	Boxer	Taylor Becker	4 years
4-Sep	Pit bull	Mattie Daugherty	85 years
13-Oct	Pit bulls	Rev. John Reynolds Sr.	84 years
24-Oct	Pit bull	Justin Valentin	4 days
2-Nov	Pit bull–Weimaraner-mix	Christina Casey	53 years
10-Nov	Pit bull-mix[419]	Kaden Muckleroy	2 years
15-Nov	Mixed-breed dog	Cason Bryant	5 years
15-Nov	German Shepherd Dog	Shirley Lou Bird	79 years
16-Nov	Pit bull	Justin Lane	25 years
5-Dec	Pit bull	Edward Mitchell	67 years
8-Dec	Stray dogs	Larry Armstrong	55 years
19-Dec	Rottweiler or Rottweiler mix	Janet Vaughan	3 months
Fatalities reported in 2011
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
N/A	Pack of stray mongrels	Larry Armstrong	55
4-Jan	Pit bull mix	Linda Leal	51 years
12-Jan	Pit bull - 2	Makayla Woodard	5 years
24-Jan	Akita	Kristen Dutton	9 years
26-Jan	Pit bull - 3	Ronnie Waldo	51 years
26-Jan	Stray dogs	Howard James Paul	76 years
17-Feb	Rottweiler	Sirlinda Hayes	66 years
19-Feb	Pit bull	Darius Tillman	15 days
7-Mar	Rottweiler	Vanessa Husmann	3 years
12-Apr	Rottweiler	Annabelle Mitchell	7 months
22-Apr	Pit bull	Virgil Cantell	50 years
24-Apr	mixed breed Pit bull - 4[444]	Margaret Salcedo	48 years
27-May	Cane Corso	Jayelin Graham	4 years
29-May	Dutch Shepherd Police Dog[448]	Jesse Porter	89 years
11-Jun	Pit bull	David Haigler	38 years
15-Jun	Pit bull	Roy McSweeney	74 years
29-Jun	American Bulldog-mix[452] orDogo Argentino[453] or "American terrier and pit bullmix"	Salvador Cotto	6 months
3-Jul	American Bulldog	Michael Naglee	11 months
23-Aug	Pit bull-mix	Michael Cook	61 years
11-Aug	Pit bull	Darla Napora	32 Years
12-Aug	Rottweiler	James Dowling	4 years
30-Aug	Unknown	Addyson Paige Camerino	9 days
30-Aug	Pit bull	Carmen Ramos	50 years
4-Sep	Labrador Retriever-mix or Pit bull	Brayden McCollen	Two weeks
16-Sep	Doberman Pinscher	Donna Conrad	71 years
30-Sep	Pit bull - 3	Nevaeh Bryant	20 Months
3-Oct	Pit bull-Mastiff mix	Mya Maeda	11 days
11-Nov	Pit bull - 2	Edna Dyson	71 years
5-Dec	Pit bull	Joseph Hines	58 years
6-Dec	American Bulldog or Pit bull	Tonia Parks	39 years
8-Dec	Pit bull	Misti Wyno	40 years
18-Dec	Pit bull	Mable McCallister	84 years
24-Dec	Pit bull - 2	Emako Mendoza	75 years
Fatalities reported in 2012
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
14-Jan	Pit bull	Jace Valdez	23 months
30-Jan	German shepherd	"John Doe"	6 years
16-Feb	Husky	Howard Nicholson, Jr.	2 days
4-Mar	Pit bull	Diane Jansen	59 years
9-Mar	Rottweiler	Dylan Andres	17 months
25-Mar	Pit bull or Pit bull-mix[483]	Kylar Johnson	4 years
9-Apr	Pit bull	James Hurst	92 years
20-Apr	Golden Retriever - Labrador Retriever mix	Aiden McGrew	2 months
27-Apr	Mastiff - Rhodesian Ridgeback mix	Jeremiah Eskew-Shahan	1 year
2-May	Pit bull	Clifford Wright	72 years
8-May	Pit bull	Jazilyn Mesa	15 months
17-May	Pit bull-mix[492]	Makayla Darnell	3 days
26-May	Pit bull	Eugene Cameron	65 years
27-May	Labrador Retriever -German Shepherd mix (2)	Ja'Marr Tiller	2 years
13-Jun	2 Mixed Breed dogs	Jack Redin	2 years
14-Jun	Pit bull	Tyzhel McWilliams	8 months
11-Jul	Alapaha Blue-Blood Bulldog or Bullmastiff or Pit bull -Bull mastiff mix	Ronnel Brown	40 years
August 11 or 12	one or more of Presa Canario (2), Pit bull (2),Boxer-mix	Rebecca Carey	23 years
16-Aug	Pit bull	Charles Hagerman	44 years
1-Sep	Cane Corso (2)	Dawn Jurgens	76 years
5-Sep	Unknown	Bryton[506] Cason	4 years
7-Sep	Pit bull (2)	Debra Renee Wilson-Roberts	45 years
11-Sep	Mixed-breed dog	James Hudson	10 Months
20-Sep	Rottweiler (2)	Donald Thomas	82 years
24-Sep	Pit bull-mix	Rayden Bruce	3 Months
26-Sep	Pit bull	Nellie Davis	60 years
2-Oct	Mixed-breed dogs, German Shepherd mixes, and/or Pit bull-mixes (7)[515]	Mary Jo Hunt	54 years
4-Oct	Pit bull	Tarilyn Bowles	3 weeks
9-Nov	Rottweiler	Dixie Jennings	3 months
11-Nov	Olde English Bulldogge orOlde English Bulldogge-American Bulldog mixes (8)	Remedios Romeros-Solares	30 years
14-Nov	Mastiff	Dawn Brown	44 years
11-Dec	Pit bull (4)	Esteban Alavez	34 years
11-Dec	Boston terrier	Unknown woman	93 years
13-Dec	Pit bull	Savannah Edwards	2 years
26-Dec	Pack of Stray dogs	Tomas Henio	8 years
Fatalities reported in 2013
Date	Category of Dog	Victim's name	Victim's age
8-Jan	Pit bull	Betty Ann Chapman Todd	65 years
19-Jan	Pit bull	Christian Gormanous	4 years
8-Feb	Pit bull	Elsie Grace	91 years
16-Feb	Pit bull	Isaiah Aguilar	2 years
2-Mar	Pit bull	Ryan Maxwell	7 years
6-Mar	Pit bull (2)	Daxton Borchardt	14 Months
27-Mar	Pit bull & Pit bull-mix (7)	Monica Renee Laminack	21 months
7-Apr	Pit bull Mix (2) or Bulldogs	Tyler Jett	7 years
11-Apr	Pit bull - Mastiff mix [548]	Claudia Gallardo	38 years
22-Apr	American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit Bull)[551]	Jordyn Arndt	4 years
24-Apr	American Staffordshire Terrier mix (Pit Bull mix)	Beau Rutledge	2 years
30-Apr	German Shepherd	Rachael Honabarger	35 years
8-May	4 Pit bulls or Feral dogs(Mixed breed dogs with "possible 'pit bull' influence")[561][562]	Carlton Freeman	80 years
9-May	Pack of four free-ranging dogs: Pit bulls[568]	Pamela Marie Devitt	63 years
9-Jun	Bullmastiff[575]	Ayden Evans[576]	5 years
17-Jun	Pit bull mix	Nephi Selu	6 years
25-Jun	Pit bull mix	Arianna Jolee Merrbach	5 years
1-Jul	Labrador Retriever mix[584]	Linda Oliver	63 years
	or "large, longer haired, black" Mixed breed[585]
	or Mastiff-Rottweilermix[586]
15-Sep	Husky-Mix	Jordan Reed	5 years
22-Sep	"Mixed breed pit bull	Daniel "Doe"	2 years
23-Sep	"Mixed breed pit bull[s]"[590]	Samuel Eli Zamudio	2 years
27-Sep	Pit bull	Jordan Ryan	5 years
1-Nov	Pit bull	Terry Douglass	56 years
4-Nov	Pit bulls	Katherine Atkins	25 years
5-Nov	Pit bulls	Nga Woodhead	65 years
8-Nov	Pit bull(s)	Levi Watson	4 years
21-Nov	Pit bull/Bull Mastiff mix; Rat Terrier	Joan Kappen	75 years
7-Dec	Pit bulls (2)	Jah'Niyah White	2 years
10-Dec	Shiba Inu (2)	Mia Gibson	3 months
13-Dec	Pit bull	Michal Nelson	41 years
21-Dec	Pit bulls (2)	Betty Clark	74
28-Dec	Boxer	Tom J. Vick	64 years