One of the witnesses to the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown admitted to holding racist views about African-Americans in a journal entry written on the same day of the shooting
According to documents released on Monday by St. Louis prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch’s office the witness outlined her feelings towards blacks in his or her journal.
On Aug. 9, the day Brown was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the witness wrote in his or her journal: “Well I’m gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks Niggers and Start calling them People.”
On Monday night, McCulloch announced that a grand jury would not indict Wilson in the killing, arguing in a long, defensive opening statement that the shooting could be ruled justified because witnesses claimed that Brown had made movements toward the officer before the fatal shots were fired. The press conference set off another round of protests in Ferguson and across the country.
In a subsequent entry that same day following the shooting, the same witness wrote in his or her journal about seeing the shooting incident: “The cop got out left hand on face Right hand on gun. The cop screamed, but I could not understand. Everyone was screaming. The big kid turned around had his arms out with attitude. The cop just stood there dang if that kid didn’t start running right at the cop like a football player Head down. I heard 3 bangs but the big kid wouldn’t stop. Cop took a couple steps forward then backwards and the gun went off 2 more times. The last one on the top of the kids head. OMG the blood.”
Notably, McCulloch said at his press conference Monday night, that all of the witnesses who said they saw Brown charge at Wilson were black. That seems undercut by the diary.
“All the ones that I mentioned specifically were all African-Americans, were the ones who came at him in a full charge,” he said in response to a question about the race of the witnesses saying that Brown had charged. “So the others who had very consistent stories, not just with each other, not just their stories or their testimony throughout, but they were consistent with the others, several others. They’re all African-American.”
-Tamara El (@_SheWise_)
