It is troubling, to say the least, to learn that 18-year-old Michael Brown committed a strong-arm robbery at a convenience story several minutes before a police officer with six years of experience shot and killed him in the street.
Equally as troubling, to me, is the fact that Brown’s accomplice in the robbery was 22-year-old Dorian Johnson, who may have been the only eyewitness to the entire altercation between 28-year-old Officer Darren Wilson and Brown and Johnson.
Johnson’s participation in the robbery — where no weapon was used but where Brown towered menacingly over a store clerk and shoved him before walking out — casts great doubt on Johnson’s story that Brown was an innocent victim in the shooting.
Johnson went on national TV with a shirt and tie and with former St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. sitting beside him and he told his story, all the while knowing he had participated in a robbery minutes before the fateful event.
That’s not good. Not good at all. To retain any credibility, Johnson should have gotten a good, experienced trial lawyer — instead of a celebrity lawyer — and told him or her the whole story and then kept his mouth shut until trial…if there was one.
That’s not to say that Johnson’s participation in the robbery would be admitted into testimony at trial (I’ll get to that), but the mere public knowledge of his participation demeans him as a prospective witness and could well color investigators’ determination of whether to file charges against Officer Wilson.
It is extremely important — critical, even — that Officer Wilson did not know about the robbery at the time he ordered Brown and J0hnson to get out of a street they were walking in and to go to the sidewalk.
If Johnson’s account is true, Officer Wilson’s first words to them were, “Get the fuck to the sidewalk.” Again, if that is true, those words set the tone for whatever ensued.
If Officer Wilson did not say that, however, and it turns out that Johnson is lying about that and more, it could greatly reduce the chances that Officer Wilson will face criminal charges, or that he would be convicted if he was charged.
This frame from video of the convenience-story robbery exploded the myth of Michael Brown (left) as a “gentle giant,” the term an uncle used a couple of days ago.
That’s because almost everyone in the U.S. now knows, or soon will know, that Brown and Johnson had participated in a robbery minutes before the fatal confrontation. I would not expect that to be admitted into evidence because it seems almost certain that the robbery and the police confrontation were isolated incidents.
(You could argue, I suppose, that Brown, fresh off the confrontation with the convenience store owner, was already in a bellicose mood and primed for more confrontation, but again it would be legally moot, in theory. It is worth noting, too, that Brown stood 6-4 and weighed 292 pounds.)
In any event, I would expect most of the jurors to know, from news accounts, what preceded the street confrontation, and that knowledge would likely affect their perception of the case.
The St. Louis County Police Department and the F.B.I. are conducting parallel investigations. The police will determine if Wilson should face state charges, and the F.B.I. will determine whether to charge Officer Wilson with violating Brown’s civil rights. In either case, if charges are filed, they would likely be felonies. A misdemeanor charge would be just as incendiary, in my view, as no charges at all.
**
In my first post on the police confrontation, on Tuesday, I predicted that the officer (today identified as Wilson) would not only would be charged with manslaughter but would be convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
That post triggered 44 comments from a dozen or more people, expressing various views of the situation.
In light of the information that has emerged today, the comment that now stands out as the wisest and most pertinent came from my friend Gus Buttice, a longtime bailiff for a St. Louis City Circuit Court judge. As I noted in the comments, Gus has seen a lot of cases involving a lot of surprising developments.
Here are the key excerpts (with a little bit of grammatical upgrading) from Gus’s comment:
“Let’s not jump to any conclusion. No one, and I do mean no one, knows what happened out there. Everything is being played very close to the vest for obvious reasons…Let the system work its best. We’ve (seen) this over and over again and we have not learned yet: A jury is a final judge, not street rhetoric or mob actions.”
Gus was absolutely right. Many of us, including me for sure, have not learned yet.
**
You might be curious about the term “strong-arm robbery.”
Today, St. Louis TV station KSDK quoted St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch on the definition:
“The use of physical force in a robbery. If someone is stealing, and another person makes an attempt to stop them, and then physical force is used to complete the act that is strong-arm robbery.
“It’s also called ‘robbery in the 2nd degree, and there is no weapon other than physical force used.
“If a weapon is used in a robbery, then the charge would be ‘robbery in the 1st degree.”
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Gus is right, a lesson that St Louis County Police Chief, Ferguson mayor and County Prosecutor should have kept in mind and guided their actions dealing with the unarmed Michael Smith homicide & street protest – e.g. military action on the streets of Ferguson, mishandling the initial release of information & investigation, and today’s press conference. It is appalling to hear the St. Louis County Police Chief Johnson say that there is not a race relations issue in Ferguson and the cops have a good relationship with the community!
Jimmy, continue to follow Gus’s advice and also keep a measured tone until the ALL the facts are in.
POTUS provides additional guidance:
“There is never an excuse for violence against police, or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting, nor is there an excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protestors,” Obama said in his first on-camera statement since Brown was killed on Saturday.
“Now’s the time for healing, now’s the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson,” Obama said
I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me a good lawyer could tie the two events together if the autopsy shows the presence of any durgs in Browns system that might have made him beligerent. If that would be the case then it seems to me that any evidence of that beligerence. i.e., the strong arm robbery, might be entered into evidence, but then again that would smack of common sense, something notably lacking in our courts these days, and probably not terribly probable in the lynching that’s about to ensue on the poor officer.
Big leap there, John — the assumption of drugs in his system. As Gus suggests, we’d better wait to see what develops. I don’t even know if blood tests were done.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article1234903.html
Apparently Kraske does not share your previous kindly assessment of Nixon’s response.
Nixon is notoriously timid…It took him six years to muster the courage to go at it with the Republican, in-the-pocket-of-the-rich legislature. He finally did it this year, but it was too late: they overrode him on the big income-tax cut.
Fortunately, his response to Ferguson wasn’t too late. It was a little late, but no one got killed or seriously injured in the demonstrations. Plus, he (or someone with the highway patrol) got it right with Capt. Johnson. (Regardless of who made that call, Nixon gets the credit.)
Nixon reminds me in a way of Obama, who also is slow to act sometimes. But he has demonstrated time and again (at least in my view) that a leader often gets better results by waiting until the picture is clearer and advice has been taken all around. I don’t have that much confidence in Nixon, but for him in Ferguson, it was no harm no foul.
Blood tests will be done in the autopsy. I’m just guessing since he had his picture taken with the ingredients for the Skittles concoction that may also have been a factor in the Zimmerman shooting. Nothing yet in evidence, but just speculating that one could tie the events together if they were both drug related. Why otherwise broadcast an irrelevant strongarm robery?
I’m not all that familiar with the concoction, only that it supposedly makes those who drink it more aggressive. I’m sure others have more information on that than I have.
The printed edition of today’s Kansas City Star has a very misleading account of the convenience store robbery. The reporter, Jason Hancock, wrote, “Authorities determined that Dorian Johnson was not involved in the robbery and will not seek charges against him…”
He very much was involved, as the video clearly shows, at one point appearing to accept stolen merchandise that Brown handed off to him. However, Johnson was not involved in the physical confrontation with the store owner, and that’s the action that turned the incident from petty larceny to strong-arm robbery. And that, undoubtedly, is why police have decided not to try to charge Johnson, although I suppose they could have, since he was an accomplice.
Nixon and Obama reacted a day late and Nixon should get more credit than Obama. Obama always waits to see which way the wind is blowing and in his typical fashion makes statements that are not in line with his actions (saying the press should be allowed to do his job yet is trying to jail a NY Times reporter, in addition to his well documented restrictive WH press coverage).
I just don’t get the PD. What purpose was the morning pc that only showed a robbery that Brown was a suspect in. Gave zero info out on the shooting. Truly was intended to drive the conversation in one direction. Then in the afternoon saying the officer didn’t stop Brown because he was a suspect. So if the cop didn’t stop them because they were suspects, why did he stop them? And how many times did he fire his weapon. And why hasn’t his report on the incident been released?
Read a real interesting article yesterday (don’t know if NYTimes or what) on all the military equipment being purchased by local PDs using government grants. The shocking thing to me in this whole mess is how the police looked and acted like soldiers instead of a police force.
Good points, Jennifer. Nixon looks good now because he’s riding Capt. Johnson’s coattails. That trooper has singlehandedly managed to convert the entire situation from “us-versus-them” to “we’re all in this together.” His use of the pronoun “we” — as in all of us caught in this unfortunate situation — has had magical results. And the thing is, he means it.
…As for the Ferguson police, you’re right, they should not have released the robbery information and video when they did. Too incendiary. Absolutely, it is vital information that goes to the characters of both Brown and Dorian Johnson, but it could have waited a couple of weeks. It would have worked more in Officer Wilson’s favor had it come out later.
It’s interesting that people of all political ideologies are concerned about the increasing militarization of the police. In this case, the NYT is late to the game. Right-wing sites have been complaining about the equipment transfers for a couple of years now. In addition, we have been very concerned about the militarization of several heretofore not militarized departments of the federal government and the billions of rounds of hollow point ammunition purchased by DHS and other departments allegedly for “practice”.
There is also an article i’ve seen this morning that describes the lack of a police presence in Ferguson now and the fact that store owners are arming themselves and protecting their own property, answering the question as to why private citizens need military quality assault rifles and handguns with capacities greater than 7 rounds.
I’M BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE RODNEY DANGERFIELD HERE..I DON’T GET NO RESPECT, NOT FROM JIMMY! I THINK YOU ARE IGNORING ME HERE JIMMIE. I WROTE THOSE SAME CAUTIONS FIVE COMMENTS BEFORE YOUR FRIEND GUS..DIFFERENT WORDS…SAME MEANING. NO RESPECT…
AND JIMMY, YOUR RAMBLINS’ HERE APPEAR TO BE CLOSE TO 180 DEGREES FROM YOUR INITIAL RESPONSE TO THE INCIDENT…MORE CAUTIOUS WITH THOSE ACCUSATIONS.
We ramble on, F…Straight lines are hard to find in the news and blogging business.
One can easily take different positions as additional information comes out, or more nuanced versions of the original. There are also peripheral issues that impinge. I’m generally sympathetic to LE, but was offended at their conduct the other night when they attacked camera crews and a small group of peaceful protesters, not to mention their growing militarization. This story is like fondling an elephant with a blindfold on, it all depends on what part of the elephant you’re touching when you give your description.
Very true…I still think the officer is in big trouble. He’s going to have a hell of a time explaining why he fired eight or 10 shots and why he continued firing when Brown was backing up with his hands in the air. I would be very surprised if that part of the story changes. The officer’s youth (28) and relative inexperience might be mitigating factors, but the start and finish of the confrontation pose huge hurdles for him to justify.
Which is why the police released the robbery stuff and nothing about the shooting on Friday morning. It was a middle finger move to Nixon and it backfired badly.
SOUNDS LIKE DIRTY HARRY…DID I FIRE 8 SHOTS ..OR DID I FIRE TEN SHOTS “PUNK”…IN ALL THE EXCITEMENT, I LOST COUNT..WELL, YOU MOST LIKELY KNOW THE REST OF THE LINES. AGAIN, HOW DO YOU KNOW THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION? AND HE CONTINUED FIRING SHOTS..JUST HOW LARGE A CAPACITY WAS THAT OFFICER’S MAGAZINE?
AGAIN, YOU ARE SPEWING “FACTS NOT IN EVIDENCE” AS ANY COMPETENT ATTORNEY WOULD SAY. BEST LET THE INVESTIGATION GO FORWARD, GOOD OR BAD. WHAT YOU ARE OFFERING UP HERE IS PURE CONJECTURE. AS “STRAIGHT” AS I CAN BE.
Everything is conjecture in life. Some just hear white cop shoots black kid and automatically take one side or the other, including just making up shit to fit their own beliefs of black kids and white cops. Or Then they read something and take that as truth.
I know this, though: People who make the choice to only focus on the looting and destruction of businesses and nothing else–they just don’t get it.
“…As for the Ferguson police, you’re right, they should not have released the robbery information and video when they did. Too incendiary. Absolutely, it is vital information that goes to the characters of both Brown and Dorian Johnson, but it could have waited a couple of weeks. It would have worked more in Officer Wilson’s favor had it come out later.”
It’s incendiary because it shows that he wasn’t the innocent child that everyone made him out to be. It’s incendiary, because people in Ferguson are just looking for a reason to riot and loot.
Sometimes you get something unexpected when you ask for something. The people demanded information and got just that. They just didn’t get the information they wanted.
I bet Real Estate goes dirt cheap in Ferguson during the coming months. You generally don’t have to pay much for scorched earth!
I hope you continue to share your racist views here. And I mean that sincerely.
“And a cop did it–even better (**fingers crossed** that he’s white)”
Your the one with the racial bias, not me.
Mr. Wallace, most LEO use model 22 Glocks. They’re .40 caliber and have 15 round magazines. I believe they’re also taught to shoot in 4 round bursts, but I could be wrong.
Personally, I think it’s fair game to release the strong arm robbery footage. It demonstrates the kind of mood Mr. Brown was in shortly before his altercation and his proclivity to try and bully his way out of a situation.
Thanks for that information, John. I had no idea about the model, caliber or number of rounds. I also agree that the robbery footage needed to be released, but I think it would have been better to hold off for a couple of weeks. Nixon might not have had to impose the midnight to 5 a.am. curfew, and the businesses that were looted early today probably would have been spared. I’m really sick about the small business owners whose places have been trashed. I’m not worried at all about Quik-Trip, on the other hand; they can easily absorb something like this. And, having watched Quik-Trip in action over the years, you can bet one thing: They will not rebuild in Ferguson.
Reports indicate that the cop fired 8-10 rounds and while I can’t speak to tactics at the Ferguson PD the departments I am familiar with train their officers to shoot in four round bursts. All self-defense training is to shoot center mass because it increases the likelihood that you’ll a) hit what you’re aiming at, and b) more importantly, you won’t hit someone you don’t want to hit. (That is also the real reason why you use hollow points for self defense.)
The downside of shooting center mass is that the probability of stopping an aggressor in their tracks is obviously less than with a fancy head shot. Even with direct hits to the heart assailants have been known to cover over 20 feet beore collapsing. So, cop shoots first burst of four, subject is still coming, cop shoots second burst of four and the threat is eliminated. What sounds like a lot of shots to a civilian is actually only two firing sequences.
Ironically, people who follow these things tell me that private citizens have a higher probability of hitting their targets in self-defense situations than does LE with its “spray and pray” tactics. Indeed, when the cops out in LA shot up a couple of innocents in a truck thinking it was the guy who had shot a cop, or two. They fired a ridiculous number of rounds (if memory serves, somewhere around 150) and only hit the truck less than around a third of the time. One former SWAT team member said that whenever there was a shoot out involving all the cops at a location he just put his rifle away because he became superfluous.
Go back and re-read that original comment again Jason. I think reading comprehension isn’t in your repertoire. Good effort, though.
Maybe I’m not the one with a comprehension problem…
Knock it off.
Jim, your blog, your rules. Sorry. But I will defend myself.
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/08/168698-eyewitness-recalls-important-detail-background-video-mins-ferguson-shooting/
This is a tape of an eyewitness talking about how Brown first ran from the cop then doubled back and went after him.
I also talked to a lawyer. Given the short period of time between the robbery and the shooting he indicated that the robbery would be intimately connected because it shows Brown’s frame of mind at the time of the shooting. He made the point that while the cop may not have been aware of the robbery, Brown certainly was and would have been leery of law enforcement in what was clearly an agitated state of mind.
The next step will be the toxicology report of the autopsy and I’m betting on drugs. We’re obviously a long way from home on this story, but anyone being attacked by a 300lb thug would have a strong case for self-defense whether the thug was armed, or not and that justification would be even higher for someone attacking LE.
That’s an interesting video, John. Apparently that story has had about 3.5 million views…You can clearly hear in the background a man talking about having seen Brown run at the officer. I sure hope, for the sake of justice, that the authorities have identified the guy and that he will tell investigators exactly what he saw.
Good reporting, too, in talking to the lawyer. It sounds like testimony about the robbery could well be admitted into evidence. Finally, your instincts about the importance of the toxicology report appear to be on target, too. As far as the Comments Dept. is concerned, you’re leading the way in “discovery.”
Meanwhile, my case against Officer Wilson is definitely starting to develop some holes! I wish I could find the video of the woman who essentially buttressed Dorian Johnson’s account. More important, again, I hope the authorities have identified her and are getting a truthful account of what she witnessed.
Is this the winess you were looking for?
There is a concoction involving skittles that makes these guys uber agressive that was involved in the Martin case (although not discussed much in the media) and it was in one of the first pictures I saw online about Brown where he had a wad of money, a gun, and some skittles. I should have downloaded it at the time.
.40 caliber pistols are now standard issue for most police departments, glocks were found to jam or miss fire..again outside looking in folks..thanks for shout out jim…
Most of the KCK cops I know carry Glocks and none of mine have ever misfired, or jammed. Indeed, everything I know about them is that they’re known for their reliability. The only “complaint” I’ve heard comes from 1911 addicts who are used to a different handle to barrel angle. Always interesting to hear a different perspective.
@ George: Johnson is not the st. Louis County police chief..The chief is Jon Belmar. Thomas Jackson is the chief in Ferguson, which has a force of 53 officers. Jackson is not equipped to handle the onslaught of media, and it showed.
Here’s an interview with a woman named Tiffany Mitchell, who said she witnessed nearly the entire episode. In the interview with Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC, Mitchell, who was in the area to give someone a ride, said Officer Wilson and Michael Brown grappled through the driver’s side window of the patrol car, with Wilson pulling Brown toward the window and Brown pulling away, When the two were in that position, she said, Wilson fired the first shot and then proceeded to fire several more shots as Brown backed away. She did not say anything about Brown charging at Wilson.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/st-louis-official-reporters-arrested-ferguson-michael-brown
Just posted the CNN version of this above.
So much for procedure. Not one shot center mass. Two head shots and four in the arm.
http://www.kshb.com/news/state/missouri/new-york-times-autopsy-shows-brown-shot-at-least-6-times
I thought the police were taught to shoot at “center mass.” Isn’t that right? That way there’s less chance of missing and giving the suspect a better chance to get at the officer…Sounds like the first shot or shots to hit Brown could well have been in the arm. That doesn’t mean the officer should have stopped shooting, especially if it turns out Brown was giving him the bullrush. It also sounds like that will be the critical issue: Did he charge or was he backing up the whole time, after getting hit the first time?
You’re absolutely correct. But remember I said that cops were actually worse marksmen than private citizens? Here’s a commentary on the shooting in California where 8 cops unloaded 103 rounds at a truck – a truck – and missed the truck itself with over half their shots.
“The 8 cops who engaged this truck never had a clear target due to the tinted backlight. That didn’t deter them.
Despite that, if you’re shooting at people in a truck, you know pretty much where they are. Most of the hits seem to be concentrated at the center mass of the tailgate, and so would have missed the occupants. (As it turns out, this is a good thing, but those eight cops swore that each made an individual, personal decision to fire in response to a clear threat. Obviously, that was “testilying,” something else LAPD apparently encourages. But most of the shots are not within two feet of where the occupants were).
And most of the 103 shots fired at the two little ladies in the truck did not even hit the truck. Think about that for a minute. These guys’ shooting sucks so bad they can’t hit a target that’s 6 feet 3 inches wide by 5 feet 6 inches high, from less than 100 feet away, with half their shots. Some of them were firing from less than 20 feet away at the doors of the cruiser, and then closed in on the vehicle to functional contact range, and still missed. The truck.
After a year, Beck admitted that the spray-and-pray cops never had eyes on target, but one started shooting at a sound; and that the other 7 of them irresponsibly collapsed into contagious fire after a single shot; and concluded (as has everyone who’s reviewed this abominable performance) that they were in the wrong:”
Cops, unlike private citizens have less to worry about in terms of consequences than private citizens and so they try to overwhelm their opponents whether physically, or through firepower by simply slinging more lead than their opponent. So when you think about it, if this cop fired two four round bursts (or just as likely started firing and didn’t stop until the kid hit the pavement) he at least hit him someplace with 60 – 75% of his shots, far better than the LAPD who didn’t even hit the truck with 50% of theirs.
One person commented that the fact that all were from the front absolved the cop. I don’t think so. Some of his witnesses claimed that he had given up and was surrendering wth his hands up. That would allow for all front shots. Except if you put your hands up the bullet wounds would be on the insides of your arms and the diagram I saw showed them on the front part of the arm, reinforcing an aggressive stance. So I think as more evidence come in it’s going to support the cop’s story.
Supposedly he was whacked pretty hard at some point, but obviously before the head shots which might reinforce the witness who says he ran away and then doubled back. So scenario, cop tells hyped up Brown who’s fleeing the scene of a robbery to get out of the street. Brown whacks cop tries to take his gun, cop fires shots perhaps hitting Brown in the arm. Brown breaks loose, but for some reason doubles back either out of confusion, or anger and cop, not wanting round two with this monster, unloads a volly of potential head shots to make sure he’s down. (Remember, center mass isn’t necessarily going to stop someone, particularly if they’re hopped up on drugs.)
That’s my hypothetical given the current coverage.
Another fun shooting you’ll see on TV quite frequently is of a shoot-out between a state troper and a white supremicist and his brother driving a Suburban. Trooper and and supremicist open fire at one another from point blank range. Neither scores a hit, Supremicist and brother get back in the Suburban and drive off as Trooper unloads the rest of his mag at the fleeing Suburban and fails to hit it either.
John, I agree with most all of what you say here, but do you think having your “bell rung” by a 300 lb. man might disrupt your pattern a little bit? I understand the officer had just received a blow to the head by Mr. Brown in the moments before the shooting. This may explain the lack of body shots and the number of shots needed to bring him down. Also, in that video you posted about the guys talking about what happened (in the background audio), they made it sound like Mr. Brown kept advancing while the shots were fired. If that is the case, then the officer had a right to protect himself, IMO.
Edit: You covered that too, I just missed it! My bad. :)
I remember shooting a .45-caliber pistol, I believe it was, in the Army (when I was doing basic or advanced training in the Reserve), and I pointed at a target about five feet away and missed. Only in the movies are the shooters dead-eyes from yards and yards away. The best marksman ever, unfortunately, was Oswald.
Jason. You have a point with being clobbered and it having it’s affect on marksmentship, but the spray and pray tradition is also a factor in a lot of these shootings.
There is a focus in more recent tactical training towards shot placement, but when you’ve already been smacked by a monster like this and he’s coming back for seconds, no reason to go down with a full mag.
Drugs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/18/county-investigation-michael-brown-was-shot-from-the-front-had-marijuana-in-his-system/