Teen Family Attorney: Autopsy Shows Officer ‘Should Have Been Arrested’

Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, center, stands with the parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, right, and Michael Brown Sr., left, during a news conference outside the Old Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014... Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, center, stands with the parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, right, and Michael Brown Sr., left, during a news conference outside the Old Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, in St. Louis. Brown Jr., 18, who was unarmed, was shot to death Saturday by a Ferguson police officer while walking with a friend down the center of the street. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) MORE LESS
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Attorneys for Michael Brown’s family said their newly released independent autopsy shows that the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot Brown on Aug. 9 should have been arrested.

The autopsy showed that Brown, who was 18 and unarmed, had been shot at least six times by police officer Darren Wilson, including two shots in the head, attorney Benjamin Crump said.

Another attorney, Darryl Parks, elaborated on the two shots to the head. One shot appeared to enter Brown’s forehead and exit near his eye, which suggests that Brown’s head was in a downward position, he said.

That suggested that Brown had been “trying to surrender to the officer,” Parks said, noting that Brown was six-feet, four-inches tall. The so-called killshot had entered Brown at the apex of his head, he added.

“We believe that given those types of facts, it shows this officer should have been arrested,” Parks said.

Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who conducted the family’s autopsy, said that it was difficult to tell what order the shots were fired in, but he said he believed the shots to the head were fired last.

He also said that there was “no gunshot residue” on Brown’s skin, though he had not been able to examine Brown’s clothing, and that there was no evidence of a physical struggle.

“The muzzle of the gun was at least one to two feet away,” Baden said, adding that it “could have been thirty feet away.”

Baden is expected to consult soon with the St. Louis County medical examiner who performed the official autopsy. The Justice Department has also ordered its own examination.

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Notable Replies

  1. Yikes! Head shots fired last is the hallmark of an execution style killing. If true, super cop is a cold blooded murderer. Then it will REALLY suck when he gets his slap on the wrist.

  2. The images I have seen show Brown lying face down on the pavement. I wonder if investigators have looked for slugs in the pavement near the body. That would be definitive of an execution in my mind.

  3. Oh, man we don’t know the half of this. This wasn’t random. It just wasn’t. This was a message or a vendetta or the kid saw something or God knows what, but it wasn’t a random stop that got out of hand. Sumfin’ is very up with all of this. We may never know what it is, but this is a tale, for sure.

    The owls are not what they seem.

  4. Lets not get carried away with the conspiracy theories, but the fact that at least two shots came from “above” suggest he was down for at least one of them… I’ve never been shot, but I’m guessing that being show through the eye and face would rather knock you down.

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