FBI’s Missouri Teen Shooting Investigation Continues, Michael Brown’s Friend Speaks Out About Incident
The FBI’s Missouri teen shooting investigation will run concurrently with the investigation being done by local authorities, reports indicate. Over the weekend Michael Brown, 18, was shot by police in the suburb of Ferguson. The details regarding exactly what led to the shooting are murky, as witnesses are sharing details that run contrary to what the police say happened. Now the FBI is doing their own investigation into the Missouri teen’s death.
Reuters shares that witnesses have claimed that Michael Brown had his arms in the air and he was unarmed when he was shot multiple times by an unnamed police officer. Though the St. Louis County police are investigating, the FBI has now launched a concurrent federal inquiry into the incident.
What initiated the incident? This is the part that is most definitely not clear. Dorian Johnson was walking with Michael Brown down the street when Johnson says they were confronted by a police officer in a cruiser. Johnson spoke with MSNBC and described the incident.
Johnson says that the officer told the pair to “Get the eff onto the sidewalk.” The police assert that Brown got into a scuffle with the officer and that is what prompted the shooting. Johnson says that the officer backed up and tried to open his door, but he was so close to the teens that the door bounced back. Johnson maintains that then the officer, who was agitated, reached out of his cruiser window and grabbed Brown around the neck.
The young man says that then as Brown struggled to break away, the officer grabbed his arm to try to pull him into the car. Johnson says that then the officer drew his weapon, threatened to shoot, and the first shot went off. Next the teens both started running, Johnson says, though Brown allegedly had already been hit. Johnson apparently ducked and hid, but Brown kept running as the officer got out of the car. Johnson says Brown was shot again, and that is when Michael turned, raised his arms and got down, but the shots kept coming. A separate witness, Piaget Crenshaw, says that she saw the officer chasing Brown down the street as shots fired. She says she watched as Michael turned toward the officer with his hands in the air and additional shots rang out.
The police say that as the two teens were confronted by the officer, one complied with getting onto the sidewalk and the other did not. Then, police say, the officer tried to get out of the car and allegedly one of the teens pushed him back in. A scuffle supposedly ensued, and police say there was a struggle over the officer’s gun. They do acknowledge that there was one shot fired before the officer exited the car. They are still investigating to determine “exactly what happened once the police officer exited the car.”
As the FBI’s Missouri teen shooting investigation continues, the family mourns the death of Michael Brown, who was slated to begin technical college this week.
[Image via Twitter]
