Nope, the evidence is on the side of the PD. The family isn't getting shit in any court of law, nor should they be entitled to any money.
They will likely sue the PD for the way they handled the scene and the case, and they will likely win something, and everyone will be happy.
(CNN) -- Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, in his first interview since the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, told ABC News Tuesday that he's not tormented by that fateful encounter in suburban St. Louis last summer.
"I don't think it's haunting," Wilson said. "It's always going to be something that happened. The reason I have a clean conscience is that I know I did my job right."
Repeating what he told a grand jury investigating the shooting, Wilson said Brown reached into his police vehicle and grabbed for his gun.
Wilson said he feared for his life.
Wilson told ABC's George Stephanopoulos he asked the teenager to move out of the center of the street. Brown walked over to his car and pushed the door back as Wilson tried to get out, the officer said.
"As I looked back at him, punches started flying," Wilson said in the interview, which aired Tuesday night. "He threw the first one and hit me in the left side of my face."
Wilson said he didn't know how many times he got hit.
"I just know there was a barrage of swinging and grabbing and pulling for about 10 seconds," Wilson told ABC. "I reached out my window with my right hand to grab on to his forearm."
Wilson said he wanted to move Brown away.
"I just felt the immense power that he had. And then the way I've described it is, it was like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. That's just how big this man was," Wilson said. "He was very large, very powerful man."
Wilson is 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds; Brown was the same height and weighed nearly 300 pounds.
Brown unleashed another punch and struck the officer in his face, Wilson said.
"How do I survive," Wilson recalled thinking. "I didn't know if I'd be able to survive another hit like that."
Wilson reached for his gun and told Brown to back off or he would shoot, the officer said.
"You're too much of a (bleeped) to shoot me," Wilson claimed Brown told him before grabbing the top of the officer's gun.
Wilson tried to squeeze off two shots but the gun jammed twice.
Brown, he said, tried to reach the trigger guard to shoot Wilson. Wilson got a shot off on his third attempt, he said.
"He gets even angrier," Wilson said. "His aggression, his face, the intensity just increases. He comes back in at me again."
There was another shot, Wilson told ABC. The officer gets out of his car and goes after Brown, who turns around from 30 to 40 feet away.
Wilson said Brown reached into his waistband with one hand and made a fist with the other.
"He starts charging me," Wilson said in the interview. "My initial thought was, is there a weapon in there."
Wilson said Brown never had his hands up as if to surrender.
Brown charged at Wilson, the officer said.
"I decide to shoot," he said "I fired a series of shots and paused. I noticed at least one of them hit him. I don't know where. I saw his body kind of flinch a little."
Wilson said he paused again and commanded Brown to stop.
Brown kept coming. Wilson said he fired again and Brown flinched as if hit.
With Brown just 15 feet away, Wilson said, he backpedaled. Brown got closer and positioned himself to tackle the officer, according to Wilson, who then shot the teenager in the top of he head.
Wilson told ABC that he was sorry for the loss of life but that he was simply doing his job and following his training.
Wilson said he recently married.
"We just want to have a normal life," he told ABC. "That's it."
The death of Brown sparked violent demonstrations in the days after the shooting and again on Monday night, when it was announced that a Missouri grand jury would not charge Wilson.
In the hour-long interview, Wilson said he could not have done anything differently.
Asked if the incident would have turned out differently if Michael Brown had been white, Wilson said no.
What's next for Wilson?
Wilson, 28, spent six years with the Ferguson police department before being placed on administrative leave following the shooting. Wilson worked for two years at another police department before that.
Wilson remains on leave, pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told reporters Tuesday.
"No decision has been made," Knowles said. "His current employment status has not changed."
Last week, people close to the talks told CNN that the officer was in the final stages of negotiations with city officials to resign from the police department.
Wilson has told associates he would resign as a way to help ease pressure and protect his fellow officers.
The United States Justice Department is also investigating whether Wilson violated Brown's civil rights.
In newly released transcripts of testimony that the grand jury heard while considering whether to bring charges in Brown's death, Wilson told the jurors that he had never fired his gun on duty before that day.
Wilson told the grand jury his original goal was to arrest Brown, after identifying him as a possible suspect in a shop theft.
Wilson fired 12 shots, according to the grand jury proceedings.
The officer told the St. Louis County grand jury that two shots were fired during a struggle at his police vehicle and that he then fired three bursts of gunfire as he chased and later backed away from Brown. He testified that his Sig Sauer .40-caliber gun held a maximum of 13 bullets.
Wilson tried to squeeze off two shots but the gun jammed twice.
Brown, he said, tried to reach the trigger guard to shoot Wilson. Wilson got a shot off on his third attempt, he said.
I'm not disputing the officer's story, but how does this happen:
A sig is semi-auto. It can't jam and then fire without being cleared. So what is he trying to say?
I'm not referring to the incident, I'm referring to the handling of the scene after the incident, and the way they handled the case. They left his body in the street for hours, and even the PD acknowledged this was wrong. They will also likely look closely into how the prosecutor handled the grand jury case, I'm not sure that anything will come out of that though.Nope, the evidence is on the side of the PD. The family isn't getting shit in any court of law, nor should they be entitled to any money.
I'm not referring to the incident, I'm referring to the handling of the scene after the incident, and the way they handled the case. They left his body in the street for hours, and even the PD acknowledged this was wrong. They will also likely look closely into how the prosecutor handled the grand jury case, I'm not sure that anything will come out of that though.
But many legal analysts on both sides are already in agreement that the scene was handled poorly by the PD and that a successful lawsuit is likely because of that.
This family's lawyers will keep going after the PD until they win something. It's such a large case, and this isn't the end of it.
I'm not disputing the officer's story, but how does this happen:
A sig is semi-auto. It can't jam and then fire without being cleared. So what is he trying to say?
The GJ transcripts were releases but they're long. Haven't seen a tldr version.Most likely because it wasn't really a "jam". The media has no clue, and any time a gun doesn't fire it's called a "jam". That gun has an exposed hammer, and if it doesn't have a clear path to travel it won't hit the firing pin hard enough to fire. I imagine that's what happened in the struggle, but I'm also not sure where that story came from and if it's believable. This has been such a clusterfuck I'm having a hard time believing anything anybody reports anymore.
Most likely because it wasn't really a "jam". The media has no clue, and any time a gun doesn't fire it's called a "jam". That gun has an exposed hammer, and if it doesn't have a clear path to travel it won't hit the firing pin hard enough to fire. I imagine that's what happened in the struggle, but I'm also not sure where that story came from and if it's believable. This has been such a clusterfuck I'm having a hard time believing anything anybody reports anymore.
By this logic, everyone in prison for a serious crime is there because they couldn't help the "environment they were born into". They "didn't engineer their brains". Do you see how ridiculous this is? You are basically blaming God/evolution/whatever for everyone's problems since he/it engineered human brains, i.e. assigning a cause for their behavior that they were 100% powerless against and blaming some other unknown variable for their actions. What you are describing is lawlessness, i.e. anarchy because nobody is punished for their crimes committed. This type of thinking has no place in our society and I bet you have major problems with authority.
The coroner said he waited in his car for almost 3 hours because of the crowd yelling at him. I think they even had shit thrown at him.
He said he was very upset that the body laid out in the heat for so long, but he blames the neighborhood for being chaotic.
Im also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street, the time it took involved very important work on the part of investigators who were trying to collect evidence. . . . Please know the officers meant no disrespect to the Brown family, the African American community or the people of Canfield. They were just trying to do their jobs.
That happens to be the case. The bolded is actually true, but maybe you don't care about truth. You like to think people are responsible for anything. They aren't, but we have to pretend they are, and that's fine. Instead of blaming people, a more sympathetic approach should be taken with the understanding that they are suffering creatures who didn't ask for this life, but they got it anyway.
The GJ transcripts were releases but they're long. Haven't seen a tldr version.
I wonder why the chief apologized then:
How do you express that sympathy? Should there be no laws? No punishments? No condemnation of bad behavior?
I want to make sure people know, the vast majority of the protestors are engaging in non violent civil disobedience. Only a tiny fraction, who likely have little to do with the protestors are causing damage and violence.
That happens to be the case. The bolded is actually true, but maybe you don't care about truth. You like to think people are responsible for anything. They aren't, but we have to pretend they are, and that's fine. Instead of blaming people, a more sympathetic approach should be taken with the understanding that they are suffering creatures who didn't ask for this life, but they got it anyway.
Just a slight change in tone would make a difference so dramatic it would blow you away.
Because you're there and know first hand? Everyone knows you're a troll, so gtfo.
Suuuurre. Do you think Al Sharpton will change his tone?
I saw a lot of signs of "No Justice, No Peace" and "Hands up, don't shoot" but I never saw any signs of "No Looting" or "Behave like normal human beings" or "Hands up, don't loot". Hummmmm.
There are lots not doing the shit you see on CNN, you're not seeing it because CNN and the other media outlets only show the negative side of shit.
People rioting and tearing shit up = exciting! lots of news coverage
people peacefully protesting = meh, not interesting at all. nobody cares.
It only takes 1 person in a crowd to fuck it up for everyone in the crowd. But in all honesty, even if CNN was showing the other side here, you wouldn't care and would ignore it.
Because you're black and know what that's like? I wonder what it would be like to go on CNN's comments section and discover that you aren't welcome in your own country.
Nope. He makes the same mistakes everyone else does because he's no different from anyone else. The change has to start with someone though. Holding on to a bad attitude is a bad idea regardless of what others do.
BS they aren't responsible for anything. We are 90% responsible for our actions and 10% can be attributed to luck. 10% luck isn't going to justify a 100% exemption from punishment. I'm sure you will now go into some philosophical BS on how we don't have Free Will, but save it for your waterbong sessions.