Wednesday - October 22, 2014

A wee bit late

Finally, Ferguson Facts ?


It’s only October 22nd. The Michael Brown shooting was back on August 9th. Granted, investigations take time. But when you’re dealing with an explosive situation you learn how to expedite. And how to present information. For the public good, of course.

Most of this information should have been made public within 72 hours of the event. Not nearly 72 days. There was no reason for Ferguson to burn.

Michael Brown’s official autopsy report does not seem to support the narrative that he had his hands up and was running away when he was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, according to experts who spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

...

Brown’s wounds seem to support that — according to the autopsy, he was shot in the hand at a very close range. A forensic pathologist told the Post-Dispatch that “if he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”

The report also seems to suggest that Brown was facing Wilson when Wilson fired the fatal shots, not running away as some witnesses have said.

From the Post-Dispatch:

The wound to the top of Brown’s head would indicate he was falling forward or in a lunging position toward the shooter; the shot was instantly fatal.

A sixth shot that hit the forearm traveled from the back of the arm to the inner arm, which means Brown’s palms could not have been facing Wilson, as some witnesses have said, [forensic pathologist Judy] Melinek said. That trajectory shows Brown probably was not taking a standard surrender position with arms above the shoulders and palms out when he was hit, she said.

The experts who spoke to the Post-Dispatch were not involved in conducting the autopsy.

Brown’s family commissioned a private autopsy in August. The official autopsy report mostly matches the findings of the private autopsy, according to the Post-Dispatch. They list the same number and location of wounds. The forensic pathologist who conducted the private autopsy, however, said that none of

Brown’s wounds seemed to be from shots fired at close range.

Yeah, IIRC, there was some remark about “medium range”, unless I’m confusing that with Trayvon Martin’s autopsy report. I’m honestly not sure, but I do remember reacting to that “medium range” remark with incredulity.

Source: Darren Wilson says Michael Brown kept charging at him

Brown’s blood reportedly found inside police car

Police Officer Darren Wilson told investigators that in a struggle for his pistol inside a police SUV, Michael Brown pressed the barrel of Wilson’s gun against the officer’s hip, according to a source with knowledge of his statements.

Wilson tried to prevent Brown from reaching the trigger, the source said, and when he thought he had control he fired. But Brown’s hand was blocking the mechanism.

When Wilson got two shots off, Brown was hit in the hand and ran. Wilson fired again when Brown turned back and charged at him, Wilson told investigators.

The white officer’s shooting of the unarmed black 18-year-old triggered protests, riots and a national debate over race and policing.

In the most detailed account of Wilson’s version of the Aug. 9 event to be made public, the source described how the encounter started, Brown’s refusal to stop charging at Wilson and the injuries suffered by both men.

The St. Louis medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham, who is not part of the official investigation, reviewed the autopsy report for the newspaper. He said Tuesday that it “does support that there was a significant altercation at the car.”

Graham said the examination indicated a shot traveled from the tip of Brown’s right thumb toward his wrist. The official report notes an absence of stippling, powder burns around a wound that indicate a shot fired at relatively short range.

But Graham said, “Sometimes when it’s really close, such as within an inch or so, there is no stipple, just smoke.”

The report on a supplemental microscopic exam of tissue from the thumb wound showed foreign matter “consistent with products that are discharged from the barrel of a firearm.”

Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco, said the autopsy “supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.” She added, “If he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”

There you are. We just got a reminder of how the world works, because physics doesn’t lie. When you fire a gun, nearly all the gunpowder inside gets burned up, but it all comes out the barrel behind the bullet in a white hot ball of plasma. And along come little bits of the explosive used in the primer, along with microscopic bits of metal where the bullet rubbed against the barrel, and even micro-droplets of lubricant from the firearm itself. And they go flying forward in an expanding cone, at first actually faster than the bullet itself (although it slows down extremely fast). And everyone who watches one of those CSI shows knows that this stuff is what they call GSR. Gun shot residue. Right. Know it, love it.

But the thing about an expanding cone is that it’s expanding; it doesn’t start out any larger than the bore of the gun. So you get a big thin circle of the stuff on the target at a certain distance, none at all on the target at a longer distance, and a smaller, denser circle of the stuff at a shorter distance. Just like the pattern made by a shotgun. But when there’s no GSR around the wound, it’s always a good idea to look in the wound. And if the wound channel is internally crusted with residue, and the wound channel is partially cauterized, it means the firing distance wasn’t yards. It wasn’t feet. It might not have been inches; it was nearly muzzle pressed to flesh. Or flesh pressed to muzzle. And that’s what we’ve got here. ( good thing this PD doesn’t issue 1911s, isn’t it? * )

And the city officials ought to have had the picture of the blood soaked police car, and the information about the GSR crusted wound channel, out to the public in a matter of hours. Not days later, and certainly not months. They had the story from officer Wilson within minutes, and you know it. So they knew to look in the car for blood, and they knew to look on the body for really short distance gun shots. Get your ducks in a row, fools.

Maybe cities with areas of ... unrest ... ought to put together an UTT for situations like this. Yeah, my sarcasm: an Uncle Tom Team. The We’re Watching You Crew. You get a teacher, a preacher, a business owner, an alert senior citizen, and two younger people in their late 20s. All of them college educated, and all of them black. And they serve as community liaisons, not working for the po-po or Da Man, but watching him, while at the same time being up on the podium telling people to keep a lid on it, to bring in any videos, to not touch but to call in any evidence they might see, etc. And you give them a bit of basic training, so that they understand GSR and stippling, so that they understand blood typing and identification, etc. A weekend of training would be enough. And then they observe. And videotape. So when the results do come out, they can say “I saw this, I watched the test, I saw the results. It’s real.”

And the WWUC ( the dub-double you see ) would do their community a great service: not only would they be respected watchdogs on the officials, they’d also help keep the rumors from working overtime and generating mayhem.

Of course, one problem here might be being able to find such a group who actually don’t want things to go up in flames. 

Posted by Drew458     on 10/22/2014 at 12:03 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Government • Racism and race relations •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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