An Ohio resident has reportedly revealed new details to the grand jury currently weighing a case against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The unidentified witness claims to have seen the Brown shooting from start to finish.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the eyewitness recalled four key details:
• After an initial scuffle in the car, the officer did not fire until Brown turned back toward him.
• Brown put his arms out to his sides but never raised his hands high.
• Brown staggered toward Wilson despite commands to stop.
• The two were about 20 to 25 feet apart when the last shots were fired.
The man’s account differs some with other Ferguson residents who have claimed that Brown’s hands were up in the air when he was shot and that he was running away from the officer the entire time.
The witness, who is reportedly black, said he saw Wilson’s police vehicle stop near Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson as they walked in the middle of the street. He said he heard the officer say something to the pair, but he wasn’t sure what was said. He said officer Wilson the drove past them and proceeded to back his vehicle up.
Looking at the scene unfold from the right side of the police SUV, the witness claims he saw a “tussle going on” and recalled seeing Wilson’s hat come off.
The “tussle” was allegedly followed by a gunshot, sending Brown running away from the officer. The witness said Wilson then drew his firearm and yelled, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”
More from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The witness said Brown did stop, mumbled something he could not clearly hear and took a step toward Wilson.
“When he stepped foot on that street, the officer told him to stop again, and he fired three shots,” the witness recalled. “When he (Brown) got hit, he staggered like, ‘Oh,’ and his body moved. Then he looked down.
“His hands were up like this (he gestures with arms out to the side and palms upward), and he was looking at the officer and was coming toward him trying to keep his feet and stand up. The officer took a few steps back and yelled, ‘Stop,’ again, and Michael was trying to stay on his feet.
“He was 20 to 25 feet from officer, and after he started staggering, he (Wilson) let off four more rounds. As he was firing those last rounds, Michael was on his way down. We were thinking, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, brother, stop, stop.’ He was already on his way down when he fired those last shots.”
After going over the entire incident in his head, the witness said he believes that Wilson is guilty of murder.
“It went from zero to 100 like that, in the blink of an eye. … What transpired to us, in my eyesight, was murder. Down outright murder,” he added.
Read the full report here.
Source: The Blaze