Replies

Here — scoutmaster’s source may help:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3191948/posts?page=120#120

I believe in this case, the ‘assault’ on the officer involved the police cruiser’s door. When the officer backed up, he opened his cruiser door and attempted to exit and confront the men. Did he do so slowly and deliberately, or quickly?...

I need to check my sources, but I believe one of the official stories stated that Brown used the cruiser door to strike the officer and knock him back toward the cruiser.

The ‘eyewitness’ stories are that, after backing up, the officer flung the cruiser door open as he attempted to quickly exit the cruiser, and the door struck Brown and bounced back (as it would, with a kid the size of Brown). It could be that Brown helped that bounce, but I can also imagine the policeman striking Brown with the door and the door bouncing back.

The ‘eyewitness’ story is that the policeman then drew his handgun, put Brown in a headlock with his other arm, and pulled Brown back to the car.

Allegedly, the police officer accidentally discharged the weapon as Brown was struggling to get out of the headlock - with no fight over the weapon.

Thanks, Chip. if Scoutmaster's post is the more accurate account, that the officer was 'knocked back towards the cruiser' and ' the policeman then drew his handgun, put Brown in a headlock with his other arm, and pulled Brown back to the car' then wouldn't that would contradict Mr. Johnson's version that the officer could not/did not exit the vehicle until after the first shot? But again, it's going to go back to forensics.

I wasn't certain from what I read that the officer ever made it out of the car before the first shot was fired. The 'eyewitness' testimonies involved the officer back up right alongside the men and throwing the cruiser door open while the men were standing in its path.

One or more of the 'eyewitness' testimonies has the officer wrapping one arm around Brown's neck through the open cruiser window after the cruiser door bounced back, while holding his firearm in the other hand.

That of course is 'eyewitness' testimony, notoriously unreliable, and not the official police report of a possible bad shooting, which is also notoriously unreliable.