Michael Brown

I’ve produced this video from clips taken from residents on the day Michael Brown was shot and killed.  A number of the clips from across the street where Ace Johnson taped had to be spliced together from shorter clips, so you’ll notice a bit of editing.  If anyone has anymore clips that I didn’t include, let me know and I’ll insert them as well. I put the clips in chronological order.

Michael Brown was born May 20, 1996 and on August 9, 2014 stood 6’4″ tall and weighed 292 lbs. On August 9th, Michael was staying in Ferguson according to his grandmother, with her.  However, according to Daryl Parks, Brown family attorney, Michael was staying with friends.

Michael took part in graduation ceremonies at school on March 4, 2014 but truth be told, Michael still needed more credits to graduate. Mike needed an alternative learning program to overcome his lack of academic skills. He took summer school and finished the requirement on August 1, 2014. See this link to read about the culture of beating up security guards at Mike’s high school, written in May 2013 by Elisa Crouch of the Post Dispatch.

Reports suggest Michael was to begin classes on August 11, 2014 at Vatterrott College, a technical school, to learn how to fix, repair & maintain furnaces and air conditioners. It’s unclear what school Mike planned on attending because St. Louis, MO didn’t offer the HVAC course starting August 11th.  Click on link provided for locations offering HVAC courses.

On August 9, 2014 (times are Central Standard Time) according to an information package released by Ferguson Chief Thomas Jackson on August 15, 2014 the following timeline can be determined.

11:48am – Officer Darren Wilson and an ambulance crew were at an unrelated call about a sick person

11:49am – Michael and his friend, Dorian Johnson entered Ferguson’s Market and Liquor store and Michael robbed the store of some Swisher Sweet Cigarillos. According to police report valued at $48.99

11:51am – A 911 call comes in about a ‘strong- armed’ robbery at a nearby convenience store – Surveillance Video 

11:52am – Police radio dispatch gives a description of two robbery suspects who assaulted a clerk and stole Swisher Sweet cigars. The clerk says the suspects were walking toward the QuickTrip gas station

Noon – Officer Wilson leaves the home of the sick call.

12:01pm – Officer Wilson encounters Michael Brown & Dorian Johnson walking in the middle of the street in the 2900 block of Canfield Drive.

12:02:14pm – Audio/Video starts recording in nearby apartment appears to have captured 10 gun shots.

12:02:22 – According to event log (Page 14/19) second officer dispatched to scene.

12:04pm – A second officer arrives on scene and the ambulance from the sick call arrives to give Brown medical attention. He is declared dead at the scene.

12:05pm – A supervisor was dispatched and other officers arrive at the scene of the shooting.

12:05:03pm – This picture was posted on twitter from someone who lived in the apartments on the north side of Canfield. (Note: the time of the tweet will display in your time zone, you need to convert it to CST if you don’t live in the CST zone)

http://twitter.com/TheePharoah/statuses/498152994014130176

A short time later (minutes) police have crime scene tape up and people from the apartments on the south side of Canfield start coming out to see what is going on.  Below is one of their videos. This video captures EMT approaching Brown’s body 3.17 minutes into the video being recorded.

So what happened?

Most witnesses seem to agree that there was a tussle of some sort between Mike Brown and the Officer while the Officer was inside the car and Mike Brown was at the SUV window.

Clearly the Officer wanted to exit his vehicle but according to Dorian Johnson, the door hit them and closed again.  Dorian goes on to say the officer grabbed Michael by the neck but I noted in Dr. Baden’s report, he saw no injury or bruising to Michael’s body. He saw no signs of a struggle on the teen.  In one telling of this part, Dorian says the officer was pulling Michael’s arms inside the car.

Some witnesses reported hearing a shot fired and then saw Dorian and Mike run.  Dorian said he saw a shot fired and Mike was hit on his right front side. Piaget Crenshaw and Tiffany Mitchell don’t mention a second person (Dorian Johnson) at the scene.  They just concentrate on the activity between the officer and Brown.

Word spread among residents that Michael Brown had his hands up but got shot anyway. At 5:02 of the video above, the person tells us he was told Michael had his hands up. This was mere minutes after the shooting.

Piaget Crenshaw, Dorian Johnson and Tiffany Mitchell also say that Michael had his hands up when he turned around. All 3 backed off how high those hands were after the autopsy report was released on August 17th showing a number of shots to Michael’s upper right arm. Dr. Baden, hired by the Brown family, to conduct a 2nd independent autopsy, is of the opinion all the shots that hit Michael were fired from the front.

Shaun Parcell and Daryl Parks added a red mark to the back of the diagram of the autopsy report, previously published in the New York Times, and tried to explain at a presser held August 18th, how that bullet might have hit Michael from behind. In subsequent interviews, however, Dr. Baden was consistent, all shots fired came from the front.

According to a source familiar with Officer Darren Wilson’s statement, he says he fired at a fleeing Mr. Brown but those shots missed and that at one point, Michael put his hands up and turned around to face him. Then all of a sudden, Michael started to bum-rush him and he opened fire again.  The Officer believes toxicology reports will reveal that Michael Brown was “on something” to behave so aggressively towards the officer.

Frances Robles of the New York Times writes

According to his account to the Ferguson police, Officer Wilson said that Mr. Brown had lowered his arms and moved toward him, law enforcement officials said. Fearing that the teenager was going to attack him, the officer decided to use deadly force. Some witnesses have backed up that account. Others, however — including Mr. Johnson — have said that Mr. Brown did not move toward the officer before the final shots were fired.

According to Dr. Baden’s preliminary autopsy, Mr. Brown was shot 6 times and all shots were survivable but for one. The one to the apex of his head. As Michael Brown stood 6’4″ tall, his head had to have been pointed at the officer for it to have been hit.

Dr. Baden also talked about a shot that hit Brown’s right eye. It’s his opinion that when that happened, Brown was perpendicular to the ground because the bullet exited the eye and hit the jaw, exited the jaw and hit the collar bone.  In other words, Brown was falling toward the ground when the shot hit his eye.

As the shots to the arm wouldn’t have made Mike Brown fall, I opine that shot to the top of his head was the second-last shot. It was instantly fatal and Mike Brown started to fall. The last shot hit his eye and because he was falling downwards, the bullet traveled downwards and it exited and re-entered the body twice more.

A sitting grand jury has begun to hear all the evidence in the case.  St. Louis County prosecutor, Bob McCulloch has promised to show every piece of evidence to the Grand Jury in reaching a decision to charge the Officer or not.

The local NAACP has their own investigation going as does the Federal Department of Justice to see if Mr. Brown’s civil rights were violated in any way.

We have been told not to expect anything out of the Grand Jury until at least mid-October.  If the Zimmerman case is any indication of how long an investigation can take at the Federal Level, it’s been over 2 years and still no word on the results of that investigation.  So no one should expect to hear from the Federal branch for years.  Long after Eric Holder is gone.  Who by the way, signaled he’ll be leaving his job sometime after the mid-term elections (November 2014).

If in fact this Officer acted justifiably, the George Zimmerman case will tell you that even up against lynch mobs, lying lawyers, bias, agendas and political pressure, the truth will set you free.