A witness, who spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the condition of anonymity, says he was working on a building in the neighborhood when he saw Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson chasing Michael Brown and shooting him while the teen’s hands were up.
So far the key witness to the shooting has been Dorian Johnson, a friend of Brown's who was with the 18-year-old when he was shot. Johnson maintains that Wilson started firing when Brown’s hands were up. Several other witnesses have corroborated his story.
Now a man from a neighboring county who was working at the Canfield Green apartment complex on the day of the shooting also says he heard a single gunshot, looked up from his work and witnessed the shooting.
Wilson, a white police officer, shot Brown about noon on Aug. 9, prompting residents to take to the streets in protest amid charges of racial profiling and excessive force.
The account from the worker, who has not previously spoken with reporters, supports stories by other witnesses who said Wilson chased Brown on foot away from the car after the initial gunshot and fired at least one more shot in the direction of Brown as he was fleeing; that Brown stopped, turned around and put his hands up; and that the officer killed Brown in a barrage of gunfire, the report says.
But the recounting does little to shed light on the most critical moment of the confrontation, “on which members of the grand jury in St. Louis County may focus to determine whether the officer was justified in using lethal force: whether Brown moved toward Wilson just before the fatal shots, and if he did, how aggressively,” the news site writes.
Read more at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.