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On August 9, a 28 year old armed white man, Darren Wilson, a Ferguson, Missouri police officer, shot and killed a black, unarmed, 6'4", 292 pound, 18 year old named Michael Brown, who was in the company of another black man, 22 year old Dorian Johnson. It is unclear to me, and apparently to others, how and why Ofcr. Wilson and the two black men came into contact initially, if Wilson was responding to a convenience store robbery or knew nothing about any robbery, and if it was a robbery, whether Brown and Johnson were suspects and why. Besides being two young black men. I think it is the position of Ferguson police that whatever the situation with the strong-arm robbery there was some physical confrontation between Ofcr. Wilson and Brown and perhaps Johnson. I am not clear on Johnson's role, besides being black.
There followed in Ferguson 9 days, so far, of "unrest." Today the Governor of Missouri called out the National Guard to assist in maintaining order. That may have been a necessary step, I do not know, but it was an ominous step as calling out the National Guard is a sign of considerable local loss of control over facts on the street. Also today Dr. Michael Baden released the results of a private autopsy he and a local Missouri Medical Examiner performed on Brown's body and the, I think satisfactorily clear, body diagram at top, identical to a thousand such I have seen over the years. Six shots, all in the front of Brown's body, two in the head. I would think all the shots being to Brown's front is a good sign for Ofcr. Wilson, as good as 6 shots into an unarmed person can be, which doesn't strike me as being cause for police celebration, but I would think one or more shots to the back would have been worse for Wilson. Although I have also read that Brown relatives and protesters are as happy with Baden, et al's report as it is possible to be happy when your unarmed 18 year old loved one or friend has been shot six times and killed by a police officer. Main Justice is going to investigate and conduct its own autopsy. No close range characteristics on the body per Baden's team but the results of gunshot residue analysis on Brown's clothes, an intermediary target, were not available to them.
We have, at this point, the two damning facts: the number of shots and a victim who was unarmed. Those facts (and the races of the principals) would cause unrest and they may remain the most probative facts in the decision whether to prosecute Ofcr. Wilson in state or federal court. Police shootings are a professional area of experience for the undersigned, as are racially-tinged homicides. I hope and I would pray if I prayed that this investigation is conducted with the integrity and thoroughness and independence that have not been present in some police-involved homicide investigations where I practice law. Missouri is the "Show Me" state and Missouri has something to show here.
