Wilson testified that Michael Brown looked 'like a demon,' punched him multiple times
On Monday night, St. Louis County prosecutors released almost 5,000 pages of testimony from the Ferguson grand jury, covering 23 separate meetings that took place between Aug. 20 and Nov. 21.
A CNN team has been sifting through the documents, paying close attention to Officer Darren Wilson's testimony about what happened on Aug. 9. Wilson told the grand jury that he identified Michael Brown as a possible suspect in a theft, and drove over to him. He said Brown punched him multiple times and slammed the door of his cruiser twice. "I felt that another of those punches in my face could knock me out or worse," he said. "The third one could be fatal if he hit me right."
He said that after Brown started to walk away, the teenager turned around and ignored Wilson's demands that he get on the ground. Wilson began to shoot, but "missed a couple....I know I hit him at least once because I saw his body kind of jerk." Wilson said this didn't stop Brown, who looked "like a demon" and "was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I'm shooting at him."
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Wilson told the jury that Brown reached into his waistband while running toward him, and that when he was shot and fell to the ground, he went down face first. Wilson referred to the neighborhood where the shooting took place as a "hostile environment" that was "just not a very well-liked community," filled with gangs and a "lot of gun activity, drug activity." He also said that this incident was the first time he had ever used his weapon while on duty.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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