(Editor's note: CNN source refutes this report from Fox News)
Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson reportedly suffered severe facial injuries from being beaten up before he shot and killed unarmed teen Michael Brown, a new report from an unidentified source claims, Fox News reports.
The source, who Fox said was close to Ferguson Police Department leaders, told the news network that Wilson suffered “severe facial injuries” that included an eye socket fracture, and was also beaten to the point that he almost lost consciousness.
“The assistant [police] chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” the source claimed. “He was beaten very severely.”
Video footage, taken at the scene shortly after the shooting, showed Wilson pacing around Brown’s body. He did not appear to be nursing any wounds as he walked (a witness narrates at 2:01 in the video below).
The source who spoke with Fox News said that when Wilson ordered Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson to get on the sidewalk, the confrontation quickly got physical. “They ignored him, and the officer started to get out of the car to tell them to move,” the source told Fox News. “They shoved him right back in; that’s when Michael Brown leans in and starts beating Officer Wilson in the head and the face.”
Additionally, the source claimed that there was a struggle for Wilson’s gun, which ended in the gun going off, but added that it was unclear as to who pulled the trigger. Brown, the source said, started to walk away when Wilson ordered him to freeze.
“What, you’re going to shoot me?” Brown allegedly told Wilson, according to the source, who says Brown had his hands raised in the air before charging toward the officer, which led to Wilson firing at least six shots.
“[He is] traumatized, scared for his life and his family, injured and terrified,” the source said of Wilson, adding that the six-year veteran was afraid that he would be made an example.
Read more at Fox News.