Michael Brown Shooting Key Witness Charged With Filing False Police Report: Dorian Johnson

Michael Brown shooting witness Dorian Johnson was charged with filing a false police report. Johnson is the young man reportedly shown with Mike Brown at the QuikTrip allegedly stealing Swisher Sweets cigarellos. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, Brown’s friend talked to the media about what he claims unfolded when the pair were stopped walking in the street.

Dorian Johnson’s false police report charge stem from a 2011 incident and not the Mike Brown shooting. The background check run on Johnson by ABC 17 News first uncovered his police record and initiated the casting of doubt upon his Ferguson shooting statements. At the time Darren Wilson shot the unarmed black teenager, a warrant for theft was still active against Johnson. The arrest warrant, from the same year as the false police report filing charge, was issued in Jefferson City.

Current media reports indicate that Mike Brown’s friend will not be charged for the alleged cigarellos theft at the Ferguson QuikTrip. Dorian Johnson has been interviewed by a series of local and state authorities, along with the FBI, according to statements his attorney made to CNN. When journalist Don Lemon asked Johnson’s attorney if his client neglecting to note that he and Brown had just robbed the store was a “lie of omission” the lawyer replied that it was not.

Freeman Bosley Jr. said that Johnson was under no obligation to share that information with the media and claims Darren Wilson had no way of knowing the teens had conducted a strong-arm robbery when stopping them. Exactly when the Ferguson police officer learned of the dispatch about the QuikTrip robbery remains unclear. Freeman Bosley did say that Johnson informed all the law enforcement officers he spoke with about the robbery. Lemon asked if a deal had been struck to keep his client from being arrested for the Swisher Sweets theft and Bosley said only that his client was told that based on what the police knows now Johnson had not done anything wrong and had not committed any crime. Whether or not the Ferguson shooting witness has been arrested on the outstanding warrant remains unknown.

During interviews after the Michael Brown shooting Johnson told reporters that his friend was “shot like and animal” and was running away with his hands up. Johnson’s comments helped spark the viral hashtag – #HandsUpDontShoot. Two other Ferguson shooting witnesses also later stated that Brown was running away with his hands up. Tiffany Mitchell and Piaget Crenshaw were the Brown shooting witnesses which appeared to back up Dorian Johnson’s accounting of the events. “The second time he says, ‘I’ll shoot,’ a second later the gun went off and he let go. That’s how we were able to run at the same time. The officer pursued Brown and fired another shot, which struck Brown in the back,” Johnson told USA Today.

The preliminary autopsy results conducted at the Brown family request by Dr. Michael Badan, stated that the Ferguson teenager was not shot in the back, all of the bullets hit Mike Brown in the front. It remains unproven if the shooting victim had his hands raised in a surrender position or in another position.

[Image Via: ABC 17 News]