(PIX11) — Scores of people may be calling for his arrest, but that didn’t stop officer Darren Wilson from relaying his account on the events of that fateful day in Ferguson, Missouri to the New York Times.
The shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9 caused a national uproar. A prayer vigil honoring Brown transformed into a demonstration seeking justice for his death, which ended up in looting and violence in the St. Louis suburb and caused police to justify the use of tear gas to calm the unrest.
But what led to the mayhem is still unclear, and only one person directly involved in the scuffle is still alive to tell the tale.
Wilson told the New York Times that he feared for his life as he was pinned to his squad car, caught in a struggle with Brown for his gun. The report published late Friday states that in the scuffle, the gun went off twice, one of the shots going into the car and the other hitting Brown in the arm. Brown’s blood was found on Wilson’s gun, according to forensic evidence obtained by the Times.
But what happened after Brown was out of the police vehicle, leading Wilson to shoot him five more times? The Times story does not speculate about the gap in the night’s timeline. The justice department in Washington and the grand jury in Missouri only have conflicting witness accounts to go off of–some saying that Brown was surrendering and others that he continued to advance on Wilson.
Sources told the New York Times that not enough evidence exists at this point to charge Wilson with violating Brown’s civil rights.
The Brown family lawyer expressed skepticism to the Times about Wilson’s story, saying he will tell investigators anything he has to “to justify the shooting of an unarmed kid.”
Read the full New York Times article here.
