teenager Michael Brown was the "prime suspect" in a store robbery that
occurred minutes before he was shot, a release the Brown family said
was "intended to assassinate the character" of the slain teen.
The description of the alleged theft of $48.99 worth of cigars was
included in a packet of police reports distributed by the Ferguson
police departmenttoday when they identified Officer Darren Wilson as
the cop who shot Brown. The packet of information gave a detailed
description of the alleged theft and the suspect, but it included no
details of Brown's confrontation with Wilson.
"Michael Brown's family is beyond outraged at the devious way the
police chief has chosen to disseminate piece meal information in a
manner intended to assassinate the character of their son, following
such a brutal assassination of his person in broad daylight," the
statement said.
"There is nothing based on the facts that have been placed before us
that can justify the execution style murder of their child by this
police officer as he held his hands up, which is the universal sign of
surrender," the statement said.
The statement was attributed to Brown's family and the family's legal
team, which is headed by Benjamin Crump. The statement noted that the
release included stills allegedly from the store's surveillance video
showing a suspect looming over the store employee, adding that the
department has declined "to release the photographs of the officer
that executed him."
Anthony Rothert, the legal director for the Missouri branch of the
ACLU, had sued Tuesday for the release of the incident report
describing Brown's shooting.
"I think it's fair to say that releasing some records, but not
releasing others when they're equally public record seems to be an
intentional effort to distract the public," Rothert told ABC News.
"They're hiding it for whatever reason ... That leaves the public to
imagine why that's being hidden," he said.
"They've given us the wrong incident report," Rothert said.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixonappeared to be surprised by the release of the
robbery report.
"New facts are out ... those are not the full picture of everything,"
Nixon said. "They're pieces of information."
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Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said he could not release the police
report of Brown's shooting because the county police had taken control
of that investigation.
He defended his release of the robbery reports said that he had no choice.
"I released the videotape to you because I had to. I've been sitting
on it... but too many people put in (Freedom of Information)
requests," Jackson told reporters today.
Among the 19 pages of reports in the police packet released today was
a report written by the police officer who responded to the 911 call
regarding the store robbery. That officer watched a store surveillance
video of the theft. He also responded to a report of Wilson's fatal
confrontation with Brown.
"It is worth mentioning that this incident (the store robbery) is
related to another incident," the officer wrote. "In that incident
Brown was fatally wounded... I responded to that scene and observed
Brown. After viewing Brown and reviewing the video, I was able to
confirm that Brown is the primary suspect in this incident."
The chief made clear, however, that Wilson's confrontation with Brown
was not prompted by the report of the store's robbery. Jackson said
his officer's contact with Brown began because Brown "was walking down
the middle of the street blocking traffic."
Below is a moment by moment description of what happened on Aug. 9
according to reports by the Ferguson police department and statements
made today by Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson.
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