 |
FERGUSON,
Mo. — 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
accounts of what witnesses have told local and federal law enforcement
authorities come from some of those witnesses themselves, law
enforcement authorities and others in Ferguson. Many spoke on the
condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified
discussing a continuing investigation.
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.
Also
on Tuesday, federal authorities learned the results of an autopsy
performed on Mr. Brown by military coroners that showed that he had been
shot six times, though they declined to release further details until
their investigation was finished. An autopsy conducted on behalf of Mr.
Brown’s family also found that he had been shot at least six times —
including once in the face and once in the top of his head — with all
bullets striking him in the front. The county has also done its own
autopsy, which found evidence of marijuana in Mr. Brown’s system.
The Brown family has scheduled a funeral for Monday.
Clashes
between the police and protesters have become a nightly ritual,
although the scene on Tuesday was initially calm. The authorities took
their positions before sunset, and Missouri National Guard soldiers
staffed checkpoints at the shopping center that is now a police command
post. Demonstrators marched without incident while officers watched. The
quiet nature of the protests raised hopes that they had entered a
calmer phase, but more confrontations were reported overnight, with 47
people arrested.
Continue reading the main story
In
a statement on Tuesday night, Gov. Jay Nixon expressed sympathy for the
Brown family and praised residents for “standing against armed and
violent instigators.” But he also said that “a vigorous prosecution must
now be pursued.”
“The
democratically elected St. Louis County prosecutor and the attorney
general of the United States each have a job to do,” Mr. Nixon said.
“Their obligation to achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael
Brown must be carried out thoroughly, promptly and correctly, and I call
upon them to meet those expectations.”
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment