On November 24th, 2014, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney John McCulloch made the announcement that the grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson, sending an uproar across cities in America.
There has been much debate over how this case was handled, and there are people who strongly support or oppose the ruling made by the grand jury. After looking at the evidence, the jury ultimately came to the conclusion that Officer Wilson had acted in self-defense, and that by shooting the teenager, Wilson was able to escape the dangerous situation.
Despite the ruling, people continue to argue over whether Wilson’s actions were justified, or if he should have been charged with some type of crime.
It’s difficult to say whether or not Wilson was justified in his actions, since there is only Wilson’s testimony to describe the sequence of events, along with a few vague but credible stories from other witnesses.
Based on Wilson’s testimony, Wilson first encountered Brown as he was driving through a street, in search of a call he had received about a robbery that had occurred about a block away.
Wilson saw Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson, walking in the middle of the street. Wilson claims he simply asked the pair to move out of the street.
At this moment Wilson noticed Brown was holding a handful of cigarettes, which lead him to believe that he could possibly be connected to the robbery that had just taken place in the area.
After asking for additional officers through the dispatcher, Wilson puts the car in reverse, right in front of Brown and his friend Johnson.
After this point, the two possible stories break off into different scenarios.
According to Wilson, as soon as he opened the door, he claims that Brown shut the door, not allowing him to exit the vehicle.
During that struggle, Wilson claims that he knocked Brown back with the car door, where soon after Brown swung and hit him on his cheek.
Wilson then pulled out his gun, threatening to shoot if Brown refused to step away from the vehicle, in fear of suffering another punch to the face that could possibly knock him out.
According to Wilson, when Brown heard this, he scoffed at his threat and reached forward in the car, in an attempt to take his gun. Brown struggled to pull the gun away, then after getting control, fired two shots in the car at Brown.
At this point, Brown was running away, and Wilson pursued him down the street. Wilson says that Brown stopped at one point, and Wilson asked him to drop to the ground. Instead of stopping, Brown charged at him at full speed, with a menacing, intense look on his face. It was at this point where Wilson fired the volley of fatal shots about eight to ten feet away, until Brown had dropped to the floor.
The conflicting story comes from Dorian Johnson, Mike Brown’s friend, who reports that it was true that Brown had just stolen some cigarillos from a local store, and that he suspected that they would be arrested as they walked home.
Johnson claims that after being asked to move out of the road, Brown and Wilson had a verbal argument, and out of anger, Wilson opened the car door, striking Brown.
Johnson claims Wilson then got out of the car, and grabbed Brown by the neck, and says that the two men were pulling each other’s shirts and arms.
During the struggle, Johnson said he heard Wilson threatening to shoot Brown, without Brown punching or reaching for his gun.
After Wilson fired the first two shots, Johnson claims that Brown ran down the street, being pursued by Wilson.
After the third shot struck Brown, Johnson insists that Brown stopped, faced the officer, and put his hands up, as a gesture to concede to the officer.
After being stunned by the shot and putting his hands up, Johnson claimed that he was shot several more time before he could say anything.
Depending on which story sounds more credible, people have had very opposite feelings and thoughts about who was in the wrong, and whether or not the death of Brown was justified.
The ruling has already been made; those who are in conflict about the decision of this incident can only hope that the correct ruling was made, and that all evidence used in the trial was interpreted and used correctly.