Is there anything in the statements that show how Wilson got punched on the right side of his head when Brown approached the car on his left (diver’s side) and punched him with his right hand? I’m trying to picture in my head how that works out physically.
Maybe the back window was open, and Brown threw a looping punch through the back window which circled around and hit the officer from the right. There. Satisfied?
Wilson says that at that point he was holding Brown’s right arm, and that Brown handed the box of Swishers to Dorian Johnson to free up his left hand for a swing. If Wilson’s head was turned to look out the window, which makes perfect sense because that’s where Brown was, then the right side of his face would be exposed to a punch from Brown’s left hand. Which is exactly what he describes. It sounds like there was really only one punch that landed squarely and it was that one.
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve been reading a lot today and I’m bound to get some minor details incorrect unless I’m typing while reading (which is what I’m trying to do).
Which would work if Wilson’s head is sticking out of the car window. Otherwise, no.
And Brown hands the cigars to his companion? Didn’t want to mess them up? Huh?
Just wanted to say I appreciate this thread and the analysis within, steronz.
Oh the punch was with the left hand then, not the right. It does make more sense of Wilson was out of the car or in the process of getting out. Reading on.
According to the St. Louis Co PD Crime lab weapon analysis report, they examined 12 fired .40 S&W caliber cartridge cases (Federal).
Assuming that Wilson’s firearm and magazine was missing 12 rounds, the 12 cases examined indicates that Wilson fired 12 times.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1371265-crime-lab-firearm-evidence.html
Wilson stated that Brown was essentially inside the vehicle, through the window.
“He was a heavier set taller subject enough to where he had to duck his head to come into my vehicle and he entered my vehicle with his hands, arms, and his head… assaulting me.”
“He turned to his… if he’s at my vehicle, he turned to his left and handed the first subject. He said, ‘Here take these.’ He was holding a pack of-several packs of cigarillos which was just, what was stolen from the Market Store, was several packs of cigarillos. He said ‘Here hold these’ and when he did that I grabbed his right arm tryin’ to just control something at that point. Um, as I was holdin’ it he came around he came around with his arm extended, fist made, and went like that straight at my face with his… a full swing with his left hand.”
elucidator, normally I appreciate your snarky replies but I’m worried you’re going to derail this thread. If you have specific questions I (or others) can try to answer them, but I’d appreciate a little help with the tone here.
Strikes me as very peculiar behavior. Also, a point of confusion: did he know, at that time, that cigarillos had been stolen? Seems that I have heard conflicting reports on that.
Witness 44 was interviewed by the FBI 1 week after the shooting. They state that when Wilson backed up he “bumped” into both Brown and Johnson. They saw Brown’s hands going in and out of the car, and then heard the first shot. They saw a gun drop to the ground (?!), not sure if it was Brown’s or Wilson’s because they heard there was a struggle for the gun. Describes a 15 second altercation and then a shot. Brown ran “about 4 steps” and then stopped and turned around and “that’s when the rest of the shots followed.” Brown turned around after “between 5 and 10 steps” then turned around, took a step back and “put his hands up basically like I’m done. Arrest me.” Then 5 shots and Brown fell down. The interviewer asks about the hands and the witness says that his hands were up “like at his shoulders” and that he looked scared.
Witness 44 was interviewed again by the FBI on Sep 25th, they go through the previous statement. The witness confirms that she saw Mike Brown’s upper body inside the police vehicle, like head and shoulders and arms and everything. The witness heard the shot and Brown exited the vehicle like he was shot. The witness isn’t sure that they saw a gun fall now. Now says that Brown ran 10-12 steps. Reiterates that his arms were up at his shoulders, close to his body, palms out. Says that she (mentions a boyfriend) couldn’t see facial expressions, but that his body looked scared. The interviewer is really trying to hammer out the details because the witness has said that his vision isn’t that good, and he didn’t have glasses on at the time. How could she tell he had his palms out? Because of the difference in colors. She says that Brown was hunched over when his hands are up. The interviewer asks if Brown came towards Wilson, and she says no. The interviewer says “We have evidence that he actually did come forward” and gives her a chance to change her statement, but she sticks to it. My opinion is that this is a solid witness, the FBI tries to rattle her with a few different tactics and other than the number of steps changing from 4 to possibly 12, and the dropped gun that nobody else saw, her story is consistent.
From memory, there was a radio call about the theft, and then a later call describing the suspects and what they’d stolen. Wilson initially approached Brown and Johnson just to tell them to get out of the street, and then saw the cigarillos and backed up. The confusion is that someone made a statement to the effect of “Wilson didn’t even know about the cigars when he first stopped,” by which I think they meant he didn’t see the cigars on them when he first stopped, only after he started to drive away. I think that’s probably true. But people mistook that for a statement saying he stopped them and started a fight just because they were walking in the street, whereas it’s clear from his statement that he put everything together about the theft as soon as he started to drive away and saw the cigars in his mirror.
Sorry about my post about witness 44, I change gender from neutral to female to male and back to female. Figuring out gender is hard because of all the redactions but there’s usually a clue somewhere, and I’ll go back and change all my pronouns. I did a bad job in that post and missed the edit window.
Witness 45 was interviewed by the FBI a week after the shooting. He says Wilson reached out of the car and grabbed Brown, there was a struggle and then a shot. Brown ran and there was a second shot. Then Brown stopped, turned, and put his arms up. He says there were two officers in the car (?!). He says that Brown stops near a pole, turns around, hands up, and “goes back.” He’s walking back. Running or walking? He walked back to the car. There were 8 or 9 shots then, the last one Brown was on his knees (but the interviewer led him to the knees thing, not sure why). Then he clarifies – “barely… fallin’ like all on his knees.”
Witness 46 was visiting her cousin in Ferguson, she was in her car at the time. She was interviewed on Aug 15th by the FBI. She saw Wilson wilson put his gun out the car window, then Brown and Johnson ran, and then she started hearing shots and put her head down. I gotta admit, this one is painful to read, it’s pretty clear that she didn’t see much and isn’t really offering anything other than she’s really scared of guns and put her head down as soon as the shooting started.
Witness 48 was interviewed on August 14th by the St. Louis County police. She lives in the area. She heard two shots and the guys (Brown and Johnson) took off running. Wilson got out of his cruiser and chased them, and then Brown stopped and turned around and Wilson stopped. Brown started running back toward Wilson. She says his hands were in fists close to his chest, about shoulder height but close to his chest. She heard 3 shots, and then 4 more. She was in the center row of a minivan looking out the windshield.
Witness 62 was interviewed on August 27th by the St. Louis County police along with the FBI. This is the doctor that treated Darren Wilson in the hospital. There was bruising and some scratches, and he prescribed naproxen. No broken bones. Wilson was anxious but understandbly so given that his superiors were there, otherwise nothing noteworthy about his demeanor.
Nitpick: physician’s assistant, not an MD.
Regards,
Shodan
Witness 57 was interviewed a second time (no transcript of the first) on November 6th by… damn near everyone, it seems. The first interview was on the day of the shooting, and this interview is just prior to the witness’ grand jury testimony. The witness had gone on a podcast and played some cell phone footage he’d taken following the shooting. He’s asked to clarify what he saw during the altercation at the cruiser. He says Wilson was grabbing Brown’s shirt collar, and then Brown was able to push off the car and run away. He says he didn’t see the shooting. On the podcast he said he saw Brown leaning into the window, but now he doesn’t seem to want to commit to that. They pressed him but he won’t go back to saying that he saw Brown leaning into the car. He also described more on the podcast about the shooting than he’s willing to admit now, only saying that he didn’t see the shooting. It seems they’re worried he’s going to say stuff in front of the grand jury that he said on the podcast but didn’t say in his Aug 9th interview.
Witness 64 was interviewed a second time (no transcript of the first) on November 11th, again by everyone (FBI, DOJ trial attorney, US Ass. Attorney). The first interview was on Aug 21st. Again, they want to make sure that the witness only testifies about what they saw, not what they may have heard from other people later. She saw Mike Brown running, being chased by Wilson. Brown turned around but was still moving, “coming back towards the officer” and Wilson started shooting. She says he’d already been shot when he was coming towards Wilson, but she doesn’t know where or when he was shot. During the first interview she said Brown was shot while running away in the hip and leg, but now she’s saying it might have just appeared that way because of the way he was jerking and she doesn’t actually know where (or if, I presume) he was hit. She doesn’t know if he was stumbling or running, but “it looked more to me like he was stumbling.” She says his hands were up, and demonstrates that they were at shoulder height with his palms out. And then he dropped his hands and started holding his chest, but continued stumbling forward. He may have been running, she won’t say it herself but she doesn’t seem to want to deny it either. This witness is interesting, because she original said that Brown was shot from behind but that he was moving towards Wilson when he was killed. The interviewers are trying to make sure that one part of her statement (the shooting from behind) comes off as an honest mistake, and not something that she lied about and then changed her story to comply with the autopsy report (which she claims not to have seen), but they can’t paint her as a liar because they need her testimony about the direction Brown was moving.
OK, that’s it for witness interviews. I’ll have to go through all the grand jury transcripts, but it’s not yet clear to me why they included these interviews and not others, especially for the last two I read where we don’t have the original interview transcripts but we know they testified.
In the pro-Wilson camp I’m going to put Witness 10, Witness 30, Witness 48. Witness 10 is a slam dunk for Wilson – hands down at his waistband like Wilson said, charging toward Wilson, and thinks that Wilson made the right call. Witness 30 says hands down and moving toward Wilson, doesn’t necessarily say charging but wasn’t surprised when Brown was killed and has no reason to lie (felon, doesn’t like police). Witness 48 basically supports Wilson’s testimony, but she didn’t have the best view – running towards Wilson, hands in fists.
In the neutral camp I’m going to put Witness 14, Witness 34, Witness 64. Witness 14 seems like a solid, credible witness (no reason to lie) but says hands up and not charging; at the same time, he only thinks the last volley was unjustified. Witness 34 says moving towards Wilson but insists it wasn’t running; at the same time, he seems to think the shooting was justified. Witness 64 says stumbling towards Wilson with hands up to surrender, not running, but leaves the door open for interpretation (moving towards Wilson, hands drop to clutch chest).
In the pro-Brown camp I’m going to put Witness 44, Witness 45. Witness 44 doesn’t rattle, puts Brown with his hands up not moving towards Wilson. Witness 45 gets some key details wrong but paints a pro-Brown narrative that doesn’t contradict the physical evidence and that the FBI doesn’t make much effort to poke holes in.
I’d recommend disregarding the statements of Witness 16, Witness 22, Witness 25, Witness 32, Witness 38, Witness 43, Witness 46, and Witness 57 because they either didn’t see the whole thing or their interview/statement was thin.
I’d recommend disregarding the statements of Witness 12, Witness 35, Witness 37, Witness 41, and Witness 42, because I doubt their credibility.
If you want to read the cream of the crop, go for the 8 at the top of this post. That’s it for me for today, I’ll move into the transcripts when I get a chance unless someone else wants to go through them.
Witness 40 submitted a diary entry which strongly supports Wilson’s side of the story - that Brown turned and rushed him aggressively. I didn’t see any interviews conducted with Witness 40. Perhaps he wasn’t deemed credible given his racist commentary in the earlier entry.
Yes, I didn’t read it because it wasn’t a sworn statement and because I fucking hate reading cursive. I don’t know when it was written or who the guy was. Everyone else explained what they were doing there much better than “time to go see what black people are doing.”
Testimony of the crime scene detective.
Grand Jury Volume 2, page 144
Twelve shots fired, 10 casings recovered on the street (page 149). They searched the car but did not find the casings. They were later found in the grass further away from everything else.
Blood spatters were found on the street, such that Michael Brown’s body was between the blood spatters and the police cruiser. No measurements, just pictures and diagrams that we frustratingly don’t have. (Starts on page 157)
An “apparent” projectile recovered near Brown’s right foot (page 169).