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.
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