Day: October 22, 2014

There is a report out now trying to put a spin on the official autopsy report. That report states that the official autopsy report of Michael Brown supports officer Darren Wilson version of what happened when he killed the unarmed teenager in Ferguson Missouri.

The supporting evidence, according to this report, was the blood on and around the door of the officer’s patrol car, and gunshot residue around Michael Brown’s thumb area. This, the report said, supports Darren Wilson’s version that Mike Brown attacked him in his patrol car, tried to reach for the officer’s gun, and punched and scratched officer Wilson in the face.

According to a St. Louis medical examiner Dr. Michael Graham, who looked at the forensic documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch, the evidence “does support that there was a significant altercation at the car.”

Graham suggests that their was a bullet that moved from Brown’s right thumb to his waist, leaving gunshot residue on Mike Brown’s thumb and that residue, Graham says, is “consist with products discharged from the barrel of a firearm.”

And Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist interviewed by The Post-Dispatch said the findings “support the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.”

She went on, “If he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”

What is this report telling us? It’s not telling us anything new, except the fact that these two professionals are looking for reasons to believe Darren Wilson.

Before these two professionals expressed their opinion, their interpretation of Brown’s autopsy report, we already knew there was a struggle at the policeman’s car. We already knew that a bullet was fired at the policeman car and that Brown was hit with that bullet. This information was already corroborated by eyewitnesses to the shooting. One eyewitness, Dorian Johnson, was just feet away and watched the whole thing unfold.

No one is disputing that there was a struggle at the car. But why do we automatically ignore the eyewitness accounts and take the word of an officer who murdered an unarmed teenager, an officer who  is looking for any excuse he can find to clear his name and has had almost 2 months to come up with a story? These two professionals looked at an autopsy report and concluded that Mike Brown tried to take the office’s gun, which resulted in his own death.

Another obvious explanation for the residue on Mike Brown’s thumb would be – Officer Wilson obviously felt threatened by the struggle – a struggle which is disputed by no one. He reached for his gun which is his first line of defense, and shot at Mike Brown. Mike Brown, realizing that he was about to be shot raised his hand in his defense to avoid what was about to happen. It is likely that he then reached for the gun trying to stop the bullet, resulting in the wound and the gunshot residue on his thumb.

Former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch told KMOX that he could understand why Darren Wilson shot Mike Brown at the car.

“If there was a struggle inside that car over a firearm, it sounds to me like Officer Wilson would have been justified in taking the action he did if he pulled the trigger and actually shot Michael Brown in the vehicle area,” Fitch said. Fitch also said that “half the officers killed every year with firearms are killed with their own,” which again could explain the first shot.

No one is explaining the 6 or so shots fired at Mike Brown as he ran away from Darren Wilson. Clearly Wilson kept control of his gun and did not lose it in the struggle. And clearly, after the supposed threat to his life was not only removed, but running away, the officer made the fateful decision to get out of his car, followed Mike Brown and almost emptied his clip at the fleeing teen, killing him in the middle of the street.

No, the professionals are not explaining the most important decision by Wilson, the decision to kill. They’re choosing instead to ignore the most obvious explanation to support a killer who will say or do anything, even lie,  to clear his name.