Posted on 11/28/2014 12:54:14 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Serious errors in the handling of the Michael Brown shooting have been exposed by the grand jury files on the case, including Darren Wilson's gun not being tested for fingerprints – and the officer washing blood off his hands.
A 12-person jury, after hearing more than 70 hours of testimony from 60 witnesses, ruled that Officer Wilson will not have to stand trial over the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
However, in the thousands of pages of evidence released to the public afterwards were glaring examples of crime scene protocol not being followed.
One of Officer Wilson's key lines of defence was that Michael Brown made him fear he was going to be shot because he tried to grab his gun while in his car.
But Wilson placed the gun in an evidence bag himself and the weapon was not tested for fingerprints because, an investigator argued, 'he never lost control of his gun', Huffington Post reported.
Wilson was also allowed to drive himself away from the crime scene and wash blood off his hands, actions that are extremely unorthodox according to experts and government rules. David Klinger, an expert on police shootings with the University of Missouri at St Louis, told The Washington Post: 'An officer driving himself back? Wrong. An officer booking his own gun into evidence? Wrong. The appropriate investigative procedures were not followed.'
And a 2013 Justice Department manual on processing crime scenes makes the procedure for dealing with blood extremely clear: 'Do not allow suspect to use bathroom facilities, or to alter his/her appearance, including brushing hair or washing hands.'
There were numerous other possible breaches in protocol that the jury hearing highlighted.
The first officer to interview Wilson after the shooting didn't record the conversation or take notes
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Wouldn’t the fingerprints of Michael Brown on the gun be adequate proof that he struggled to take the gun from Officer Wilson?
Perhaps. However when the detective had to choose between dusting for fingerprints and doing the DNA analysis of obvious blood, he chose the blood stain. He explained that in a struggle you don't get picture perfect fingerprints. But the DNA remains the same no matter how hard you shake it.
Mr. Wilson was trained to remove blood from his skin because it is a threat. He should have requested someone to do the DNA collection from his hands; but he says that the station was empty and he saw nobody. His supervisor said that he had nobody to assist Mr. Wilson in getting to the station. Otherwise these bloodstains could be collected. Regardless, the same blood was found on Mr. Wilson's clothes and on his gun.
This article is ignorant. It was tested for DNA, which matched the perp and criminal Brown.
The Ferguson PD is a Keystone Kops organization, and if Wilson’s freedom had depended on their processing of the scene then he’d be on his way to trial right now. It was the forensic evidence and the autopsy results done by the county that proved he acted properly.
So, it sounds like Wilson is the one harmed here, no?
Time to riot.
Unless there is a concern that someone else got shot other than Mr. Brown, it seems to be a concern over nothing that the blood was not collected.
I’m guessing the Daily Mail is guessing....
Is not true that M.B. had gunpowder residue on his hands from the gunshot in the vehicle?
Thanks for that link. I’ve got to be careful about reading Daily Mail.
Another idiot with nothing to do.
The GJ materials answer that question. He felt threatened at the location, and his supervisor gave him another venicle (the supervisor's police vehicle) and told him to go to the police station.
This was not a regular investigation where the police personnel feel safe and secure - it was nearly a riot scene, with hundreds of residents standing around, shouting insults. There were shots fired near the scene; there were people running into the scene across the yellow tape. This is why crime scene techs had to cut their work short. For example, most of the evidence was not photographed before collecting - the rioters made sure that it can't be done. Now they are complaining that the police haven't done everything by the book...
“A crime scene investigator described swabbing Wilson’s gun with a Q-tip; the subsequent D.N.A. report found Mr. Brown’s genetic material on Officer Wilson’s Sig Sauer pistol. Similarly, D.N.A. from Mr. Brown was also found on the officer’s uniform pants and shirt. In his own testimony, Officer Wilson told jurors that Mr. Brown had grabbed the gun while the two scuffled at the car.” -NYT Nov. 25, 2014
Also see: Michael Brown Shooting physical evidence Grand Jury saw (evidence showing that Mr. Brown was moving toward the officer)
Here is an example of evidence that supports the fact that Michael Brown was moving toward the officer:
GRAND JUROR: “So as far as physical evidence, we have the blood on the ground that was about 21 or 22 feet from where Michael Brown ended up.” p 4741 of grand-jury-testimony.pdf
I notice this is quoting the New York Times as the source. I went back and read the NYT summary—seemed quite fair and accurate.
Attention Doubters! Watching three years of CSI on TV does not make you a crime scene investigator.
Having been arrested does not make you a legal expert.
Learn to read and comprehend and then perhaps you can reach a logical conclusion to this problem.
Officer Wilson was doing his job. Michael Brown was a thug and a punk who was on his way to prison anyway.
When the paramedic determined Brown was dead, the care of his body legally transferred to the St. Louis County Medical Examiner. By law, police cannot touch the body. But since most medical examiners won’t set foot in the crime scene until it is processed by police, the fate of Brown’s body was back in police hands.
About the same time, miles away, Chief Jackson was driving to visit his kids, who live about 50 minutes from Ferguson, Jackson said. The call from his sergeant came about 12:05 p.m., he said.
St. Louis County detectives on duty that day weren’t close to Ferguson then. They were at St. Anthony’s Medical Center, near Sunset Hills, 30 miles south. Six hours earlier, a man with a gun had entered a hospice house there, taken a clerk into the building to find drugs and then disappeared. The hospital had been on lockdown for hours. County SWAT teams had sent at least 13 cars to the scene.
At 2:11 p.m., Ferguson police logs captured reports of shots fired. At 2:14 p.m., ambulance dispatch noted additional gunshots, then a Code 1000, calling all available jurisdictions to help. Over the next 20 minutes, the first precinct dispatched more than 20 units from at least eight different municipal forces, from Bel-Ridge to St. John to Velda City.
At some point, Chief Jackson said he urged crime scene detectives to hurry up their work. “We’ve got to expedite,” Jackson said he told them. “They said, ‘OK, we’re expediting.’ But then we had a shooting over here, crowd’s coming in, and it’s really not secure there.”
About 2:30 p.m., Calvin Whitaker, the livery service driver, arrived to pick up Brown’s body. One end of Canfield was blocked off by police and emergency vehicles. At the other end, a crowd stood in his way. “They were screaming, ‘Let’s kill the police,’” he said. People flung water bottles at his black SUV, he said, cussed at his wife and called them murderers.
A police officer told them to stay in the car. “You guys do not have vests,” he told them. “The best thing for you to do is get down.” Whitaker and his wife reclined their seats and hunkered down.
Police dogs, newly arrived, pushed the crowd back some, Jackson said. But when the dogs stepped back, the crowd surged forward, he said, even angrier than before. Jackson began to circle the perimeter with Brown’s mother.
McSpadden pleaded with the crowd, Whitaker said. “‘All I want them to do is pick up my baby,’” he remembers her saying. “‘Please respect him. Please move back.’ She would get a crowd moved back, and then another group would move up.”
The scene was so tense, commanders in charge stopped the investigation at points and directed investigators to seek cover. Detectives also were pulled away to help manage the crowd.
At 2:45 p.m., four more canine units arrived. At 3:20 p.m., tactical operations officers — the county SWAT team — began pulling in.
Finally, about 4 p.m., police officers gave the medical examiner investigator, then Whitaker and his wife, the go-ahead to take Brown’s body to the morgue.
Whitaker moved behind the barriers that had eventually been put up around the body. Police stood shoulder to shoulder alongside Whitaker’s cot and lined the path to his vehicle holding up sheets to block the public’s view.
Whitaker, 42, said he has transported hundreds of bodies over the years under contract with the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County. “That is the worst situation I’ve ever been in,” he said.
He estimated it took him no more than 15 minutes to drive Brown’s body the five-mile trip to the morgue. Workers signed the body in at 4:37 p.m. and rolled the gurney into a cooler.
The grand jury testimony showed that Mr. Brown had a graze wound on his right thumb, consistent with a close range shot. There was testimony that officer Wilson fired his gun twice during his initial struggle with Brown inside the car. If Brown was shot in the thumb during this initial struggle, this would explain the presence of Brown’s blood on officer Wilson’s gun and on his clothing and on both doors of the car.
Both DNA testing and fingerprint testing can be done on the same gun: http://www.lawofficer.com/article/magazine-feature/dna-guns
It seems poor practice not to have done both. If I were the prosecutor, I would want the fingerprint evidence, if available, to show that Brown grabbed officer Wilson’s gun, since this was a key element of his self-defense claim.
“That is true because you can test for either fingerprints or DNA, but not both. it was tested for DNA.”
Quite wrong.
I find this whole situation very upsetting, speaking of the lying involved in this entire case. Arguing with liberal relatives that just refuse to hear the truth.
They say stuff like what have Black`s ever done to me, why am I a racist(it`s implied)
My only history to any of them is my defense of George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson, from my defense of them both makes me a bad guy.
I know ALL the facts as do you folks so I wont repeat them here. I have shown them video of the gorgeous beautiful female (very female) Marine that started I am Darren Wilson, I point out to them that really the Hands up crown were discredited etc, its like talking to a stone wall.
I tell them, absolutely Blacks have had it bad going back to slavery etc,but I add why should a good decent innocent officer have to pay for past wrongs done to them.
I tell them I am ashamed of them and hope they are never on a jury...very upsetting stuff, I imagine many of you can relate.
If people are not moved by the wonderful I AM DARREN WILSON VIDEO ON YOUTUBE, and if they cant see from the video of Big Mikes strong armed robbery that officer Wilson really had no idea what was coming his way??
They are lost causes I guess...CNN etc are never going to accept the facts...God Bless Darren Wilson and his family and all the first responders etc, our military and police etc
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