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| F.B.I. agents went door to door looking for witnesses. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times |
N.Y.TIMES
As a county grand jury prepared to hear evidence on Wednesday in the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer that touched off 10 days of unrest here, witnesses have given investigators sharply conflicting accounts of the killing.
Some of the accounts seem to agree on how the fatal altercation initially unfolded: with a struggle between the officer, Darren Wilson, and the teenager, Michael Brown. Officer Wilson was inside his patrol car at the time, while Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, was leaning in through an open window.
Many witnesses also agreed on what happened next: Officer Wilson’s firearm went off inside the car, Mr. Brown ran away, the officer got out of his car and began firing toward Mr. Brown, and then Mr. Brown stopped, turned around and faced the officer.
But on the crucial moments that followed, the accounts differ sharply, officials say. Some witnesses say that Mr. Brown, 18, moved toward Officer Wilson, possibly in a threatening manner, when the officer shot him dead. But others say that Mr. Brown was not moving and may even have had his hands up when he was killed.
The new details on the witness accounts emerged as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was scheduled to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with F.B.I. agents who have been conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting.
Mr. Holder and top Justice Department officials were weighing whether to open a broader civil rights investigation to look at Ferguson’s police practices at large, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks. The issue came up after news reports revealed a 2009 case in which a man said that four police officers beat him, then charged him with damaging government property — by getting blood on their uniforms.
Under Mr. Holder, the Justice Department has opened nearly two dozen such investigations into police departments, more than twice as many as were opened in the previous five years, according to department data.
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| Officer Darren Wilson at a meeting. Credit City of Ferguson, via Associated Press |
The fatal confrontation began on Aug. 9 shortly after the police received reports that two men had robbed a convenience store in Ferguson. Officer Wilson, who was not responding to the robbery, had stopped to speak with Mr. Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson. The Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, said that it was around the time that Officer Wilson started talking to the two that he realized they fit the description of the suspects in the convenience store robbery.
A lawyer for Mr. Johnson said that his client was interviewed by the F.B.I. and the St. Louis County police last week for nearly four hours. In that interview, Mr. Johnson admitted that he and Mr. Brown had stolen cigarillos from the store, said the lawyer, Freeman R. Bosley Jr.
Mr. Bosley said that the officer told the two to get off the street, adding that Mr. Johnson told the officer that he lived nearby. They got into a bit of a verbal dispute with the officer about whether walking in the street constituted a crime, Mr. Bosley said.
Contrary to what several witnesses have told law enforcement officials, Mr. Bosley said that the officer then reached out of the window with his left hand and grabbed Mr. Brown by the throat.
He said Mr. Brown pushed him off, and the officer then grabbed Mr. Brown’s shirt.
“My client sees the officer pull a gun and hears him say, ‘I’ll shoot you’ — then ‘pow!’ there was a shot,” Mr. Bosley said, referring to the one that apparently went off in the car. “He did not describe a scuffle. It was more of a scuffle for him to get away.”
However, law enforcement officials say witnesses and forensic analysis have shown that Officer Wilson did sustain an injury during the struggle in the car.
As Officer Wilson got out of his car, the men were running away. The officer fired his weapon but did not hit anyone, according to law enforcement officials.
A man who lives nearby, Michael T. Brady, said in an interview that he saw the initial altercation in the patrol car, although he struggled to see exactly what was happening.
“It was something strange,” said Mr. Brady, 32, a janitor. “Something was not right. It was some kind of altercation. I can’t say whether he was punching the officer or whatever. But something was going on in that window, and it didn’t look right.”
Mr. Brady said he could see Mr. Johnson at the front passenger side of the car when he and Mr. Brown suddenly started running. Mr. Brady did not hear a gunshot or know what caused them to run. But he said he did see a police officer get out of the patrol car and start walking briskly while firing on Mr. Brown as he fled.
What happened next could be what the case turns on. Several witnesses have told investigators that Mr. Brown stopped and turned around with his arms up.
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.
The F.B.I., Mr. Bosley said, pressed Mr. Johnson to say how high Mr. Brown’s hands were. Mr. Johnson said that his hands were not that high, and that one was lower than the other, because he appeared to be “favoring it,” the lawyer said.
James McKnight, who also said he saw the shooting, said that Mr. Brown’s hands were up right after he turned around to face the officer.
“I saw him stumble toward the officer, but not rush at him,” Mr. McKnight said in a brief interview. “The officer was about six or seven feet away from him.”
THE GUARDIAN
Darren Wilson, the 28-year-old police officer who killed an unarmed Ferguson teenager with a shot to the head, has so far said nothing publicly about the incident.
Wilson and his girlfriend, Barbara Spradling, left their home in Crestwood, a predominantly white neighbourhood some 18 miles from Ferguson, before he was named last week in connection with the shooting of Michael Brown.
But before they left, Spradling gave an account of the shooting to a friend, who says it is markedly different from the narrative espoused by Brown’s family and their supporters.
Spradling told the friend who spoke to the Guardian that Brown initiated the altercation by striking Wilson in the face, leading to a struggle for Wilson’s gun that resulted in one shot being fired in the police vehicle.
St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference on Sunday that when Wilson got out of his squad car, Brown pushed him back in, and a struggle ensued. Belmar said at least one shot was fired from the officer’s gun inside the police car. An officer with the St Louis County police, who declined to be named, told the Guardian that Brown sustained an injury to his thumb at this point; the autopsy released on Monday shows that one shot hit Brown’s hand.
Johnson has given several slightly differing accounts of the incident. A week ago he told MSNBC that as a squad car pulled up, Wilson called out at them to “get the fuck on the sidewalk”, before the car reversed back alongside them. Johnson claims the officer opened his door onto Brown, and the door bounced off him.
Johnson, in an account supported by other eyewitnesses, maintains that Wilson grabbed Brown through the window of his squad car. Johnson, in a disputed claim, said that Wilson fired a shot while still grabbing on to Brown.
What is not disputed is that Brown then made off. In his MSNBC interview, Johnson said Brown was shot in the back, at which point he turned around and put his hands up. “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting,” Brown said, according to Johnson. (Johnson’s assertion that Brown was shot in the back was not supported by the findings of the independent autopsy.)
But Spradling told the friend that Brown turned around after the officer called on him to stop. In Wilson’s version, Brown was not shot while surrendering, but while moving toward Wilson in a threatening manner. Brown reportedly continued to move toward Wilson even after being shot, and did not stop moving forward until suffering a mortal wound to the head.
“He just kept coming,” the friend said Wilson claimed.
In Wilson’s account, Brown never raised his hands to plead for his life, or said “don’t shoot”, but rather taunted Wilson before moving forward and being shot.
THE GUARDIAN
Darren Wilson, the 28-year-old police officer who killed an unarmed Ferguson teenager with a shot to the head, has so far said nothing publicly about the incident.
Wilson and his girlfriend, Barbara Spradling, left their home in Crestwood, a predominantly white neighbourhood some 18 miles from Ferguson, before he was named last week in connection with the shooting of Michael Brown.
But before they left, Spradling gave an account of the shooting to a friend, who says it is markedly different from the narrative espoused by Brown’s family and their supporters.
Spradling told the friend who spoke to the Guardian that Brown initiated the altercation by striking Wilson in the face, leading to a struggle for Wilson’s gun that resulted in one shot being fired in the police vehicle.
St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference on Sunday that when Wilson got out of his squad car, Brown pushed him back in, and a struggle ensued. Belmar said at least one shot was fired from the officer’s gun inside the police car. An officer with the St Louis County police, who declined to be named, told the Guardian that Brown sustained an injury to his thumb at this point; the autopsy released on Monday shows that one shot hit Brown’s hand.
Johnson has given several slightly differing accounts of the incident. A week ago he told MSNBC that as a squad car pulled up, Wilson called out at them to “get the fuck on the sidewalk”, before the car reversed back alongside them. Johnson claims the officer opened his door onto Brown, and the door bounced off him.
Johnson, in an account supported by other eyewitnesses, maintains that Wilson grabbed Brown through the window of his squad car. Johnson, in a disputed claim, said that Wilson fired a shot while still grabbing on to Brown.
What is not disputed is that Brown then made off. In his MSNBC interview, Johnson said Brown was shot in the back, at which point he turned around and put his hands up. “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting,” Brown said, according to Johnson. (Johnson’s assertion that Brown was shot in the back was not supported by the findings of the independent autopsy.)
But Spradling told the friend that Brown turned around after the officer called on him to stop. In Wilson’s version, Brown was not shot while surrendering, but while moving toward Wilson in a threatening manner. Brown reportedly continued to move toward Wilson even after being shot, and did not stop moving forward until suffering a mortal wound to the head.
“He just kept coming,” the friend said Wilson claimed.
In Wilson’s account, Brown never raised his hands to plead for his life, or said “don’t shoot”, but rather taunted Wilson before moving forward and being shot.