Dr. Wecht: I don't like to be dogmatic, but there is only one way this scenario plays out when you look at the bullet wounds. There are two wounds, one in the forearm entering dorsally and exiting in the front and the other in the upper arm entering in the front and exiting in the back. Both had an upward trajectory. Michael Brown was 6' 5", Officer Wilson is 6'.
The only way that you have an upward trajectory is with the arm like this [Holds his hand up to shoulder height, palm facing forward] and the shots fired. And you have two shots that strike Michael Brown in the chest, and they both have a downward trajectory. How do you get that with a 6'5" guy being shot by a 6' guy? And then you have two wounds in the head that a parallel to the ground. When you put the body on the table, their perpendicular.
The only way you can get that is that his body is continuing to fall. The scenario is that Michael Brown was shot first in the arm, then as he is beginning to fall he is shot in the chest, and as he continues to fall he shot in the head. And he falls prone. He's 30-35' away.
What happened at the car is significant mostly because, and no one talks about this, for what was Officer Darren Wilson's attitude? Was he teed off? "This kid has just struggled with me with my gun" and the kid is now 30-35' away. He's unarmed, he's in short pants and a t-shirt. Where is this imminent threat? If he believes that this kid is a threat to his life then how in the world can he be out there as a police officer, dealing with people that have weapons, dealing with people that are really berzerk and people that really pose a serious threat?
No, this is [an] absurd scenario as far as I'm concerned in terms of Wilson's defense.
Preach it Dr. Wecht, Preach it.
Continue reading after the fold.
I will quibble with a couple things Dr. Wecht says. Both Michael Brown and Darren Wilson are 6' 4", and the exact distance between the two as various shots were fired were never measured by the medical examiner or investigators. Independent journalists, incuding our own Shaun King, have shown that Brown's body was 148 feet away from Wilson's SUV. Exactly how far Darren Wilson pursued Brown before firing the final shots is contradicted by various witnesses.
Other than that, what he's saying makes perfect sense. Brown was shot while surrendering with his hands up and then while falling forward. Any other view, for example, that he was "charging," is patently ridiculous. For who would ever think it's a good idea to charge head first into a hail of bullets?
And this wasn't the first time the Dr. Wecht had made this point.
Dr. Wecht: It was premature, as I stated, to proclaim that all the shots came from the front because, as I stated, the arm can move in different directions.
...
With the shot coming downward, entering the eye and exiting the jaw, re-entering in the right clavical, that clearly is up-downward, so you have somebody who is falling. If you want to conjecture that he was charging like a mad bull toward an officer with a gun, I find that unlikely, most likely he was already toppling when that shot was fired - moving in a downward trajectory.
'Nuff said.
2:00 PM PT: Nancy Grace, former prosecutor, is one of the most pro-police anti-crime people on CNN. I generally think she's completely over the top, but for once—in this case, it makes perfect sense.
Grace: He unloaded a dozen shots at an unarmed man, but he doesn't even have a bruise ... this doesn't add up. I've presented so many times to a grand jury I can't count them. We would present 75-150 cases to a grand jury a day. I feel that the D.A., as much a I respect him in other ways, used the grand jury to do what he wanted them to do as his tool. He presented this in such a way that this grand jury would not bring charges, and I don't like that.
4:30 PM PT:
This map from
the Washington Post shows the entire scene. These are the items found.
1. Black/yellow bracelet
2. Red baseball cap
3. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
4. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
5. Black bead bracelet
6. White Nike sandal (left foot)
7. White Nike sandal (right foot)
8. Red stain, driver-side front door, exterior
9. Red stain, driver-side rear door, exterior
10. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
11. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
12. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
13. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
14. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
15. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
16. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
17. Apparent projectile
18. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
19. Red stain in roadway
20. Red stain in roadway
21. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
22. Spent .40-caliber Federal bullet casing
They document the distance between the driver side window of the SUV and the body at 152 feet 9 inches, with two spots of blood spatter further away about another 18 feet past Brown's final resting spot.
So the Wilson scenario is this: After the two shots fired at the car window, Brown ran full speed away, losing his sandals as he ran 170 feet away (items #19 & #20), then stopped, turned and came back 21 feet in a "full charge," which took all of three seconds —according to the audio recording—between his second volley of six shots and the final four that hit him in the head and chest.
The guy who just ran 170 feet in a few seconds can only get 18-21 feet the other way in three? And remember, according to Wilson it was longer than just three seconds because he claims he didn't fire his second volley until after Brown stopped, turned around and began his walk/stumble/charge back toward him. That doesn't suggest to me that this was a "full speed charge." It's far more likely—as most of the witnesses state—that Brown was hit (likely in the arm) by the second volley fired at his back, turned, then began to walk back just as he stumbled and fell—lowering his head—as Wilson fired his third volley and killed him.