Ferguson murder began by victim walking in gutter? Wo!

Mevater

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 8:32 pm

I was sure it happened as a result of a crime the victim had committed!!!! This is shocking!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....rown/

It’s a scene that has played out repeatedly across America: A white cop stops a black teen. Sometimes there is an exchange of profanities. Maybe an arrest follows. Mostly, these events are forgotten, except perhaps by those involved. But a handful are not. That’s the case in Ferguson, Mo., where an Aug. 9 encounter between Michael Brown and officer Darren Wilson ended in death, explosive violence, protest and another bout of national soul-searching about race.

In the months since, Wilson — a tall man, nearly 6-foot-4, with soft, doughy features — was absent from public view while his name became famous. He skipped out on a court appearance. No one in his family spoke on his behalf. His lawyers ignored requests for comment. Even Ferguson’s police chief said he hadn’t spoken to Wilson since Brown’s killing. Wilson was a ghost: a man known in name, but not in flesh. Unanswered questions simmered.

The September testimony he delivered to the grand jury, released Monday after a prosecutor announced that Wilson would not be charged, provides the first and most detailed account directly from Wilson of Brown’s shooting. It varies from many previously published stories — and accusations — about a cop who brazenly shot a youth trying to surrender, some said, with his hands up.

A grand jury has declined to indict Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of unarmed black Michael Brown teenager in Ferguson, Mo., prosecutor Bob McCulloch said Monday. (AP)
On a hot August day, Wilson drove down a street and spotted two young black men walking down the middle of the road. One wore a black shirt. The other held cigarillos. The details of a robbery earlier that day, blared out on a police radio, clicked into Wilson’s head. Were they suspects? He told the two young men, one of whom was Brown, to move to the sidewalk.

Things then happened very quickly. Wilson said Brown was at his car window, enraged. Wilson said Brown hit him in the face, grabbing for his gun. Two shots fired. Brown bolted down the street. Wilson pursued. As Wilson told it, Brown charged the officer, reaching into his pants. Wilson raised his .40-caliber Sig Sauer and aimed for a lethal shot.

“All I see is his head, and that’s what I shot,” Wilson recalled during a Sept. 16 grand jury session in St. Louis.

Wilson told the story of three minutes of hot confusion, shattered glass, a misfired gun, fear and a look of anger that came across Brown’s face that Wilson said made him “look like a demon.” Wilson said he hasn’t recovered from the shock. “I’m just kind of in shock of what just happened,” he told the grand jury. “I really didn’t believe it because like I said, the whole thing started over ‘will you just walk on the sidewalk.’”

The first thing that struck Wilson about the two young men he saw walking down Canfield Drive’s yellow line was the size difference between them. “Either the first one was really small, or the second one was really big,” Wilson said he thought. After he told the men to get out of the street and walk on the sidewalk, Wilson recalled Brown, the big one, turning to him.

“Brown then replied, ‘f— what you have to say.’ And when he said that, it drew my attention to Brown. It was very unusual and not expected response from a simple request,” said Wilson, who decided the men were possible robbery suspects. He radioed for backup and cut them off with his car, peering out at Brown from inside his squad car.

“As I’m opening the door, he turns, faces me, looks at me and says, ‘What the f— are you going to do about it,’ and shuts my door, slammed it shut,” Wilson said. “… He was just staring at me, almost like to intimidate me or to overpower me. The intense face he had was just not what I expected from any of this.”

Wilson told Brown to “get the f— back,” but Brown allegedly hit Wilson in the side of his face “with a fist…. There was a significant amount of contact that was made to my face,” Wilson testified.

Wilson, who weighs more than 200 pounds, said he grabbed the 6-foot-4-inch Brown. “When I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan.” Thoughts raced through Wilson’s head, he said. “What do I do not to get beaten inside my car?” he said he thought.

Was mace an option? Wilson said he decided against it: “The chances of it being effective were slim to none. His hands were in front of his face, it would have blocked the mace from hitting him in the face.” What about his Taser? Wilson wasn’t carrying one. “It is not the most comfortable thing,” he said. “They are very large; I don’t have a lot of room in the front for it to be positioned.”

There was only other option he said he had. “I drew my gun…. He is standing here. I said, ‘Get back or I’m going to shoot you.’ He immediately grabs my gun and says, ‘you are too much of a p—- to shoot me.’” The men struggled for the gun, and Wilson pulled the trigger.

Nothing. “It just clicked,” Wilson testified. “I pull it again. It just clicked. At this point, I’m like ‘why isn’t this working,’ this guy is going to kill me if he gets ahold of this gun.’” It finally goes off and the car’s interior explodes with shattered glass and globs of blood. Wilson looked at the unarmed teen and the teen looked back. “He looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked. He comes back towards me again with his hands up.” But then, Wilson said Brown hit him again, and the cop couldn’t get his gun to work. It clicked again, until it finally discharged a second time.

Brown took off running, Wilson said. At this point, Wilson said he was confronted with a choice: get out of his car and pursue — or stay put and wait for reinforcement? He chose the former. “My main goal was to keep eyes on him and just keep him contained,” Wilson said. “… If I could buy 30 seconds of time, someone else will be here, we can make the arrest, nothing happens, we are all good. And it didn’t happen that way.”

What did happen, according to Wilson: Brown stopped running at a light pole and confronted Wilson. The cop said he yelled at the youth to get on the ground. “When he looked at me, he made like a grunting, like aggravated sound and he starts, he turns and he’s coming back towards me,” Wilson recalled. “His first step is coming towards me, he kind of does like a stutter step to start running. When he does that, his left hand goes in a fist and goes to his side, his right one goes under his shirt in his waistband and he starts running at me.”

Wilson opened fire. He missed a few times. But he also hit Brown, who “flinched.” What Wilson remembered as “tunnel vision” came over him, homing in on Brown’s right hand in his waistband. “I’m just focusing on that hand when I was shooting.” But the shots, Wilson said, didn’t deter Brown, who continued to charge toward him.

“He was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I’m shooting him,” Wilson said. “And the face that he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn’t even there, I wasn’t even anything in his way.”

Wilson took aim at Brown’s head for the shot that would kill the unarmed teen. “When he fell, he fell on his face,” Wilson recalled. “I remember his feet coming up … and then they rested.”

Then came the end.

“When it went into him,” Wilson said, “the demeanor on his face went blank, the aggression was gone, it was gone, I mean I knew he stopped, the threat was stopped.”

33055

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 8:49 pm

Brown grabbed for Wilson's gun and punched him in the face. Brown also looked like he was reaching for his weapon. That is a lot different than he was just walking in the gutter and got murdered. The witnesses who said he was trying to surrender are not credible and changed their story.

youngishbear

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 8:52 pm

Whatever the story was, the cop was cleared by a grand jury who didn't indict him. I'm assuming innocence, then.

Maybe the laws in Missouri are too lenient for cops, but that's a whole different discussion.

causemommysaid

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:10 pm

none of us are ever going to know the real story.

does racial profiling exist in our country? yes

are the cops guilty of it? yes

is it wrong and racist? yes

does that give the black community in Ferguson a right to riot and loot? no

the way I see it is that change needs to happen on both sides. the police force needs to stop targeting black males for racial profiling and the black males need to stop giving the police force reason to do so. the riots are not helping anyones cause least of all their own.

by the way this thread is going to get locked.

MaBelleVie

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:26 pm

There's a lot of criminal activity in the version you posted. Just saying.

33055

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:29 pm

causemommysaid wrote:

That guy was a suspect in a robbery that was committed that day.

I am not so sure racial profiling is always wrong. It is done is done in EY effectively. In our country it is not politically correct, but sometimes when a thug quacks like a thug he is a thug. Cops and others who deal with the public develop instincts when it comes to people as to who is a menace.

the world's best mom

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:38 pm

Goodness. The guy was holding a bunch of cigars that matched what had just been stolen. There was a perfectly good reason to suspect him. He also wasn't listening to the police like he should have.

It's a shame that policemen will always be blamed for racial profiling even when they have a perfectly good reason for suspecting a black guy.

shoshanim999

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:44 pm

I'm not exactly sure where u r going with this. Bear in mind that Michael Browns blood was found in officer Wilson's car, meaning there was a struggle IN THE POLICE CAR. when a suspect is in a physicall altercation with a policeman in the officers car....not good. Also keep in mind that officer Wilson had been on the police force for 8 years. During that time he NEVER fired his gun. Around 3 minutes after encountering Michael Brown, he had fired 12 shots.

33055

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:46 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

How about the fact he was black, 6' 4" and the correct size besides the fact he holding the cigerillos.

causemommysaid

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:48 pm

Squishy wrote:

I already said we will never know what happened here. I imagine that if the cop was not charged it means that the jury had strong reason to believe he was innocent. I am going to assume innocence in this case.

as far as racial profiling....that opens a whole new can of worms. there are many cases where it was warranted but if we make a blanket rule that it's allowed that leaves room for tremendous abuse. There have been so many instances where black men are stopped and harassed when they've done nothing wrong. That's highly unfair.

Israel is different as they are in constant state of war with the palestinians. in that case the good of racial profiling outweighs the bad.

America is not at war with black males so that leaves the question where do you draw the line?

causemommysaid

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 9:52 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

It's a shame that policemen will always be blamed for racial profiling even when they have a perfectly good reason for suspecting a black guy.

I am not saying the policeman was wrong. I assume he was in the right here.

I am simply saying that the rioters are claiming racial profiling which is a real issue in America.

That does not give anyone license to behave the way they are behaving in Ferguson.

Mevater

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:05 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

Goodness. The guy was holding a bunch of cigars that matched what had just been stolen.

Thats different. The Washington Post article didnt mention that at all. Just curious though, what was the value of those cigars?

southernbubby

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:10 pm

There is a point to expecting TSA, for example, to screen some types more thoroughly than others.

the world's best mom

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:21 pm

Mevater wrote:

Thats different. The Washington Post article didnt mention that at all. Just curious though, what was the value of those cigars?

Yes it did mention it. "One wore a black shirt. The other held cigarillos. The details of a robbery earlier that day, blared out on a police radio, clicked into Wilson’s head. Were they suspects?"

mazal555

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:23 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

There's a lot of criminal activity in the version you posted. Just saying.

Death penalty offenses?

MaBelleVie

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:30 pm

mazal555 wrote:

Death penalty offenses?

Erm, maybe I missed something. Who was charged with the death penalty?

Ema of 5

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:42 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

Erm, maybe I missed something. Who was charged with the death penalty?

Maybe she means that killing him is like giving him the death penalty?

Mevater

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 10:54 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

Yes it did mention it. "One wore a black shirt. The other held cigarillos. The details of a robbery earlier that day, blared out on a police radio, clicked into Wilson’s head. Were they suspects?"

Perhaps Im slow, but how am I supposed to connect cigarillos to a robbery, if nowhere was it mentioned in detail that cigarillos were reported stolen?

MaBelleVie

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 11:05 pm

Regardless, the fact that they were walking in the gutter is not what led to his death. His own criminal actions are what led to his death.

chanamichaelah007

Sat, Nov 29 2014, 11:17 pm

Thanks Mevater for posting this. Hearing the true story come out a couple of days ago was shocking and sickening to me. I think most folk who are not upset don't want to look too closely into it. Injustice is frustrating. Learning the background about Ferguson regarding the money taken in through fines going directly into the police department there having caused a situation where people are on edge anyway as they don't get warnings for extremely minor offenses and are fined to the point of the ridiculous, I have more understanding of why they are so upset in general, and specifically about this situation. That being said, they are doing damage to themselves handling it as they are. Seems they should have learned from the history of race riots and the permanent damaged caused to their neighborhoods at their own hands.