A Twitter user appears to have provided a contemporaneous account from the scene of the Ferguson, Mo., police shooting of Michael Brown, 18, on Saturday, Aug. 9.
The account of the incident was found and curated by Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES). The first tweets by @TheePharoah, whose Twitter biography says he lives in St. Louis, are timestamped for TPM at the time of the shooting (1 p.m. ET on Aug. 9; the shooting occurred at 12 p.m. CT, or 1 p.m ET).
The tweets also include at least one detail — that Brown had allegedly stolen cigarillos from a nearby convenience store — that was not public until Friday. TPM could not immediately independently verify the authenticity of the tweets, and there is no way to know if this user’s account is an accurate or complete depiction of the events of the day.
However, they do appear to be the only contemporaneous and recorded eyewitness account of the events to surface thus far. They are thus significant because they were recorded before it could be known that Brown’s death would become a matter of intense national news interest.
Below are a few of the tweets. Click the link for the full account, which includes at least one image that may be disturbing for some.
I JUST SAW SOMEONE DIE OMFG
— Bruh. (@TheePharoah) August 9, 2014
Its blood all over the street, niggas protesting nshit. There is police tape all over my building. I am stuck in here omg
— Bruh. (@TheePharoah) August 9, 2014
@DomoTheTruth dude was running and the cops just shot.him. i saw him die bruh
— Bruh. (@TheePharoah) August 9, 2014
Nigga got an AR pic.twitter.com/4KnaqMPO3a
— Bruh. (@TheePharoah) August 9, 2014
@_takeitsleazy apparently he stole some rellos
— Bruh. (@TheePharoah) August 9, 2014
While I am no fan of the excesses of social media (people who feel the need to write about their every thought, latte or meal), it is in times like these when a contemporaneous report is of use.
It also appears to be the most honest, non-biased account of events available.
Anyone know what “an AR” is? Automatic rifle?
“Rillos” one can assume were the cigars (cigarlillos?)
AR probably stands for AR15 or whatever kind of semi-automatic weapon the police officer is holding in his left hand in the photo that accompanies the tweet you refer to.
‘AR’ does stand for ‘automatic rifle’, but specifically it means this military-grade weapon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15