Michael Brown, an 18-year old man in Ferguson, MO was gunned down by law enforcement in broad daylight on August 9th, 2014. Mr. Brown was unarmed, and was seen by at least two witnesses with his hands in the air, running away from Officer Darren Wilson when Wilson shot several times at Mr. Brown, killing him.
Initial reports from the Police refused to name the Officer, and stated only that the shooting was justified as the result of an altercation between Brown and Wilson. Ferguson Police described the incident as follows: Brown reached into the police cruiser from outside the vehicle through the window, reached for Wilson’s weapon, discharged the weapon once inside the vehicle and then began to flee.
Witnesses describe the incident differently, stating that Mr. Brown never reached inside the vehicle, stood beside the vehicle, was struck with the vehicle door by Officer Wilson, Officer Wilson fired a shot from inside the cruiser, then Mr. Brown ran away. At that point, Officer Wilson exited the vehicle, fired one more shot at Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown stopped in his tracks and put his hands in the air, and then was shot dead with several more rounds being fired by Officer Wilson.
The FBI has been requested to take over the internal investigation and to handle crowd control of the protests which have ensued as a result of a reaction to police brutality against the citizenry.
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