“…Darren Wilson, has told the authorities that during the scuffle, Mr. Brown reached for the gun. It was fired twice in the car, according to forensics tests performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first bullet struck Mr. Brown in the arm; the second bullet missed.”

via Police Officer in Ferguson Is Said to Recount a Struggle – NYTimes.com.

It’s been two months since Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. That shooting lit the fuse on a long standing powder keg of rage for issues that have existed since before either Darren Wilson or Michael Brown were even born. Fanning the flames of racism and fear were conflicting reports from witnesses claiming Brown was unarmed and shot for no reason. The media of course, was no help, reporting erroneous data and initially portraying Brown as an innocent “teen” who’d been gunned down in cold blood for no reason other than being another black male in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well now it looks like we’re finally getting some part of Darren Wilson’s side of things and learning facts that support police statements that have been made along the way.

Sadly, some won’t be happy unless Wilson stands trial regardless of what facts come out. What’s sad however, is when people like the Brown family attorney, Benjamin L. Crump, ignores the way he knows the law works when it works fairly and makes public demands for something else. According to Crump, “What the police say is not to be taken as gospel…” Crump instead demands that Wilson be indicted by the grand jury and his case sent to trial no matter what. Crump continued, “He can say what he wants to say in front of a jury. They can listen to all the evidence and the people can have it transparent so they know that the system works for everybody.” According to Crump, “…Right now, they have this secret proceeding where nobody knows what’s happening and nobody knows what’s going on. No matter what happened in the car, Michael Brown ran away from him.”

So time will tell how this all shakes out. But, as we’ve said for some time, this increasingly looks like a justified shooting. A body camera or dash camera would go a long way in proving facts one way or the other as we’ve seen time and time again but, neither Wilson nor his patrol unit were so equipped. As we’re seeing here, when you rely on witnesses, you have to filter through the individual biases and personal agendas of everyone involved while trying to match that to the evidence available at the scene that may or may not be conclusive. Unfortunately, we already know this shooting has changed everything regardless of how it turns out.

-GM