FERGUSON, Missouri — Some witnesses called it a tussle. Others described it as a tug-of-war. Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson testified they were fighting over his handgun. ADVERTISING FERGUSON, Missouri — Some witnesses called it a tussle. Others described it as
FERGUSON, Missouri — Some witnesses called it a tussle. Others described it as a tug-of-war. Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson testified they were fighting over his handgun.
None of the witnesses who testified, other than Wilson, could say exactly what was happening inside his police car, but by almost all accounts, Michael Brown was physically struggling with the officer through his open window moments before he was fatally shot on Aug. 9.
Wilson blamed it on Brown, saying the teenager reached through his driver’s side window, hit him in the face, called him a “pussy” and grabbed his gun. Wilson told the grand jury he pulled the trigger twice in his own defense, but no shots went off.
“At this point I’m like, why isn’t this working? This guy is going to kill me if he gets ahold of this gun. I pulled it a third time, it goes off.”
That initial confrontation may help explain why jurors decided not to indict. If their initial struggle prompted Wilson to fear for his life, it could have met the legal standard for justifiable deadly force.
