2014 fatal police shooting of a black man in Ferguson, Missouri, US
On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old male friend Dorian Johnson. Wilson, a white male Ferguson police officer, said that an altercation ensued when Brown attacked him in his police vehicle for control of Wilson's service pistol. The struggle continued until the pistol fired. Johnson said that Wilson initiated a confrontation by grabbing Brown by the neck through Wilson's patrol car window, threatening him and then shooting at him. At this point, both Wilson and Johnson state that Brown and Johnson fled, with Wilson pursuing Brown shortly thereafter. Wilson stated that Brown stopped and charged him after a short pursuit. Johnson contradicted this account, stating that Brown turned around with his hands raised after Wilson shot at his back. According to Johnson, Wilson then shot Brown multiple times until Brown fell to the ground. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of twelve bullets, including twice during the struggle in the car. Brown was struck six times, all in the front of his body.
This event ignited unrest in Ferguson. Witnesses to the shooting claimed Brown had his hands up in surrender or said "don't shoot", so protesters later used the slogan "Hands up, don't shoot". A subsequent FBI investigation said that there was no evidence that Brown had done so. Peaceful protests and violent riots continued for more than a week in Ferguson; police later established a nightly curfew.
The response of area police agencies in dealing with the protests was strongly criticized by both the media and politicians. Concerns were raised over insensitivity, tactics, and a militarized response.
A grand jury was called and given evidence from Robert McCulloch, the St. Louis County Prosecutor. On November 24, 2014, McCulloch announced the St. Louis County grand jury had decided not to indict Wilson. In March 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice reported the conclusion of its own investigation and cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. It claimed that Wilson's account was "corroborated by bruising on Wilson's jaw and scratches on his neck, the presence of Brown's DNA on Wilson's collar, shirt and pants, and Wilson's DNA on Brown's palm", and claimed that witnesses who corroborated the officer's account were credible. The U.S. Department of Justice concluded that Wilson shot Brown in self-defense.
In 2020, St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell spent five months reviewing the case with an eye to charge Wilson with either manslaughter or murder. In July, Bell announced Wilson would not be charged.
Background.
Michael Orlandus Darrion Brown (May 20, 1996 – August 9, 2014) graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis County eight days before his death, completing an alternative education program. At the time of his death, he was 18 years old, tall, and weighed . He was an amateur rap musician who posted his songs on the popular music-sharing site SoundCloud under the handle "Big'Mike." He was two days from starting a training program for heating and air conditioning repair at Vatterott College technical school.
Darren Dean Wilson (born May 14, 1986, in Fort Worth, Texas) is tall and at the time weighed about . Wilson's first police job was in the town of Jennings, Missouri, where he began working in 2009. With respect to this job, Wilson said to "The New Yorker" in 2015, "I'd never been in an area where there was that much poverty."
The police force in Jennings was shut down by the town's city council in March 2011. In October 2011, Wilson began working for the Ferguson Police Department. In February 2013, Wilson won a commendation from the Ferguson Police Department after he apprehended a suspect who was later charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and resisting arrest.
Brown's activities prior to the incident.
Surveillance video which was publicly released in the 2017 documentary film "Stranger Fruit" shows Michael Brown walking into Ferguson Market and Liquor at 1:13 a.m., ten-and-a-half hours before he entered the store for the final time. The footage shows Brown handing a young clerk a brown package, believed by the filmmaker to be marijuana, and then receiving an unpurchased package of cigarillos from the store. After the video was rediscovered and made public in 2017, some, including Brown's family, said they believed Brown had left the package there for safekeeping and later returned to retrieve it. The store owner disputed this through an attorney who dismissed claims that the store traded him "cigarillos for pot." The lawyer claimed "[t]he reason he [Brown] gave it back is he was walking out the door with unpaid merchandise and they [the staff] wanted it back." The store's attorney said the video had been in the hands of Brown's family and law enforcement since the initial investigation, and said the video had been edited to remove the portion where the store clerk returned Brown's package to him. Following this, on March 13, 2017, unedited footage from the store was released by the St. Louis County prosecutor to try to settle questions.
Incident.
At 11:47 a.m., Officer Wilson responded to a call about a baby with breathing problems and drove to Glenark Drive in Ferguson, east of Canfield Drive. About three minutes later and several blocks away, Brown was recorded on camera stealing a box of Swisher Sweets cigars and forcefully shoving a Ferguson Market clerk. At 11:53, a police dispatcher reported "stealing in progress" at the Ferguson Market and described the suspect as a black male wearing a white T-shirt running toward QuikTrip. The suspect was reported as having stolen a box of Swisher cigars. Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, left the market at about 11:54 a.m. At 11:57, the dispatch described the suspect as wearing a red St. Louis Cardinals hat, a white T-shirt, yellow socks, and khaki shorts, and that he was accompanied by another male. Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said that the incident with Brown stealing cigars had "nothing to do" with why Brown was stopped by Wilson prior to the shooting, and that the reason Brown and Johnson were stopped was because "they were walking down the middle of the street, blocking traffic."
At 12:00 p.m., Wilson reported he was back in service and radioed units 25 and 22 to ask if they needed his assistance in searching for the suspects. Seven seconds later, an unidentified officer said the suspects had disappeared. Wilson called for backup at 12:02, saying "[Unit] 21. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car."
Initial reports of what happened next differed widely among sources and witnesses, particularly with regard to whether Brown was moving towards Wilson when the shots were fired. At noon on August 9, Wilson drove up to Brown and Johnson as they were walking in the middle of Canfield Drive and ordered them to move off the street. Wilson continued driving past the two men, but then backed up and stopped close to them. A struggle took place between Brown and Wilson after Brown reached through the window of Wilson's police SUV, a Chevrolet Tahoe. Wilson was armed with a SIG Sauer P229 pistol, which was fired twice during the struggle from inside the vehicle, with one bullet hitting Brown's right hand. Brown and Johnson fled and Johnson hid behind a car. Wilson got out of the vehicle and pursued Brown. At some point, Wilson fired his pistol again, while facing Brown, and hit him with at least six shots, all in the front of his body. Brown was unarmed and died on the street. Less than 90 seconds passed from the time Wilson encountered Brown to the time of Brown's death.
An unidentified officer arrived on the scene and, 73 seconds after Wilson's call, asked where the second suspect was. Thirty-one seconds later, a supervisor was requested by Unit 25. At 12:07 p.m., an officer on scene radioed to dispatch for more units. Also at 12:07, the St. Louis County police were notified and county officers began arriving on scene at around 12:15 p.m. The St. Louis County detectives were notified at 12:43 p.m. and arrived about 1:30 p.m., with the forensic investigator arriving at about 2:30 p.m.
Police dispatched 12 units to the scene by 1:00 p.m. with another 12, including two canine units, by 2:00 p.m. Gunshots were recorded in Ferguson police logs at 2:11 p.m., and by the ambulance dispatch again at 2:14 p.m., which led to the response of 20 more units from eight different municipal forces in the next 20 minutes. As the situation deteriorated, the police commanders had investigators seek cover and detectives assisted in crowd control. At 2:45, four canine units arrived on scene, and the SWAT team arrived at 3:20 p.m. The medical examiner began his examination of Brown at approximately 3:30 p.m. and concluded about half an hour later, with Brown's body being cleared to be taken to the morgue. At 4:37 p.m., Brown's body was signed in at the morgue by workers.
Investigations.
Police.
Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Wilson at about 12:02 p.m. The Ferguson Police Department was on the scene within minutes, as were crowds of residents, some expressing hostility toward the police. Paramedics covered the body with sheets. About 20 minutes after the shooting, the Ferguson police chief turned over the homicide investigation to the St. Louis County Police Department (SLCPD). The arrival of SLCPD detectives took about 70 minutes, as they were occupied with another crime scene 37 minutes away. On arrival at 1:30 p.m., they put up privacy screens around the body. Their investigation was slowed due to safety concerns regarding the sound of gunfire in the area and some hostile members of the crowd encroaching on the crime scene. An investigator from the St. Louis County Medical Examiner's office arrived at 2:30 p.m. Brown's body was removed at 4:00 p.m. Local residents criticized authorities for leaving Brown's body in the street for four hours in an action seen as demeaning and disrespectful.
Department of Justice.
On August 11, 2014, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a civil rights investigation into the incident. A spokeswoman for the FBI's St. Louis field office said the decision to open an investigation was not motivated by the protests and riots which had ensued. Forty FBI agents went door-to-door looking for potential witnesses who may have had information about the shooting. Additionally, attorneys from the Civil Rights Division and from the United States Attorney's Office were participating in the investigation.
On March 4, 2015, the federal investigation cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. The investigation concluded there was no evidence upon which prosecutors could rely to disprove Wilson's asserted belief that he feared for his safety, that witnesses who contradicted Wilson were not credible, that forensic evidence and credible witnesses corroborated Wilson's account, and that the facts did not support the filing of criminal charges against Wilson. Credible witnesses did not support accounts that Brown had his hands up in surrender. He was not shot in the back. Forensic evidence showed he was moving toward Wilson. Numerous witnesses were found to have given accounts of actions they were unable to see from their vantage points, or to be recounting others' accounts.
2020 prosecutor review.
A new St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell, spent five months in 2020 reviewing the case with an eye to charging Wilson with either manslaughter or murder. In July, Bell announced he would not charge Wilson with any crime; Bell said he didn't "have the evidence to ethically bring a charge against Darren Wilson."
Grand jury hearing.
The grand jury was made up of members who had been impaneled in May 2014 for a regularly scheduled term, to hear all cases put forward by the prosecuting attorney's office. There were three black jury members (one man and two women) and nine white jury members (six men and three women), an ethnic breakdown that roughly reflects the racial makeup of St. Louis County, which is about 30% black, and 70% white. On August 20, 2014, the grand jury started hearing evidence in the case "State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson", in order to decide whether a crime was committed and if there was probable cause to believe Wilson committed it.
There was intense interest focused on the grand jury.