So I’m actually reading the court transcripts. I’ve read several hundred pages of it so far which included the testimony of the sergeant, the testimony of the detective investigating Wilson, the testimony of an FBI agent investigating civil rights abuses, Wilson’s testimony, and I’m currently in the middle of the Medical Examiner’s testimony. I’d just like to comment on a few of the comments here.
After the altercation in the police car (in which Brown allegedly tried to reach for the poiceman’s gun), Brown ran away.
Brown did not allegedly try to reach for the gun. In his testimony, Wilson said that he told the Sergeant that Brown “went for is gun” and one of the jurors pointed out that the term “went for his gun” is not at all what happened. What happened was that Wilson drew his gun and then Brown put his hand on the gun and redirected it towards Wilson. Wilson himself agrees to this.
I just find it hard to believe that a Police Officer wearing Mace a Taser and with the ability to call for backup as soon as things started getting contentious REALLY had to shoot the kid in the head multiple times in order to save himself.
He didn’t have a taser. He had already called for backup. If Wilson was telling the truth that Brown was charging at him, and knowing from the altercation in the car that Brown completely out matched him, it would make sense why he had to shoot him.
There were also autopsy reports that said straight out that he was shot in the head as he lunged for the gun.
I’m still in the middle of the Medical Examiner’s testimony so I won’t yet comment on what the autopsy said. However, I know it definitely did not say this. An autopsy can perhaps say that he was lunging, but it has no way of knowing what he was lunging at. Wilson was already shooting at Brown while he was a distance away. He said that the final shot was from about eight feet away.
“000646: The police officer said he DID NOT have a taser in his car.”
Well that would be incompetence or irresponsible.
The point is that it is really hard for me to believe that a Police officer acting in a correct and thought out manner would really be in a position where an unarmed person would kill him if the officer didn’t use lethal force. Why did he get out of the car himself? Couldn’t he have waited for backup? Did he mace the kid, hit him with a club when he charged? Why couldn’t he shoot the kid in the legs, or somewhere besides the head?
He said that the reason he did not have a taser is that they have a limited number of tasers and they’re large and uncomfortable. Wilson explained that he got out of the car because Brown was a threat to other people including other officers who would show up. He said that he was just trying to stall him for a little bit since he expected the backup to arrive in about 30 seconds. And he shot him several times not in the head which didn’t accomplish anything. Then he shot him in the head.
Syag: I got the part about him being shot while Wilson was in pursuit from Wilson’s own testimony. You’re right, though, that he wasn’t hit in the back. I believe the bullet grazed his fingers, although I’m not sure. Wilson testified that he saw Brown’s body “jerk” before he turned around.
Wilson did not testify anything of the sort. He testified that he did not shoot while in pursuit. Once Brown turned around and charged at him, he began shooting.
I’d venture to say that Wilson should have waited for the backup that he’d already called in at the start of the incident. (They ended up arriving moments after the fatal shots.) Even in circumstances where a suspect is ARMED but not an immediate danger, protocol is to wait for backup. By choosing to pursue and continue using lethal force against an unarmed person, Wilson was following the protocol for believing another citizen’s life was at risk, a conclusion that is difficult for me to understand given that Brown was heading away from the scene at the time and no longer threatening anyone.
I already explained why he pursued. And pursing is not lethal force. The lethal force was after Brown turned around and charged at him.
As to the stolen merchandise: Wilson testified to his sergeant that he had not been aware of the robbery when he stopped Wilson; this was indeed publicly available information long before the grand jury’s decision. This testimony was completely changed during McCulloch’s press conference with no explanation.
This was one of the main discrepancies in the testimonies. The sergeant testified that Wilson said that he had head the call about the robbery, but didn’t make any connection between that and Brown. Wilson testified that he told the sergeant that he did make the connection.
Perhaps I’ll be back with more later.