Dr Michael M Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the city of New York, conducted the autopsy on behalf of the 18-year-old’s family.
The unarmed black teen died August 9 after a confrontation with a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
While Dr Baden did not comment on the heated debate surrounding Wilson’s actions, he did say the sheer amount of gun shots was out of the ordinary.
‘In my capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, I would say, “You’re not supposed to shoot so many times,”‘ Dr Baden told the New York Times.
‘Right now there is too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting.’
The results of the post-mortem examination emerged as Missouri’s governor ordered the state National Guard into Ferguson after it was convulsed by yet another night of clashes between police and protesters.
Governor Jay Nixon said the National Guard would help ‘in restoring peace and order’ to Ferguson, where protests continued last night.
Police said they fired tear gas and rubber bullets in response to gunfire, looting, vandalism and protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails.
‘These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes,’ Nixon said in a statement.
The National Guard is a reserve military force, and its deployment marks a serious escalation of the crackdown on dissent in Ferguson, a mainly black suburb of St Louis.
Dr Baden’s post-mortem examination found Brown was shot a total of six times, with four bullet wounds in his right arm and two in his head.
The final shot appears to have entered Brown’s head at the top of the skull suggesting his head was bowed down at the time.
‘This one here looks like his head was bent downward,’ he said of the wound at the top of Brown’s skull. ‘It can be because he’s giving up, or because he’s charging forward at the officer.’
They were all fired at the front of his body, and do not appear to have been shot from close range since there was no gunpowder found on Brown’s body.
However, Dr Baden did not have access to the clothing Brown was wearing or other key parts of the investigation such as witness and police statements.
Dr Baden is one of only 400 board-certified forensic pathologists in the country and he has reviewed autopsies for both President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
He has performed 20,000 autopsies and hosted the HBO show ‘Autopsy’.
He criticized authorities in St Louis county for keeping details of Brown’s death concealed – which has only made the community more enraged.
‘People have been asking: How many times was he shot? This information could have been released on Day One,’ Dr. Baden said.
‘They don’t do that, even as feelings built up among the citizenry that there was a cover-up. We are hoping to alleviate that.’
Considering the sensitivity around Brown’s death, Dr Baden decided to waive his usual $10,000 fee.
The Brown family’s attorney, Benjam L Crump, paid to fly Dr Baden out on Sunday to perform the autopsy at Austin A Layne Mortuary.
He says the autopsy results prove that Wilson’s actions were unjustified.
‘The sheer number of bullets and the way they were scattered all over his body showed this police officer had a brazen disregard for the very people he was supposed to protect in that community,’ Mr. Crump said.
‘We want to make sure people understand what this case is about: This case is about a police officer executing a young unarmed man in broad daylight.’
Following Brown’s death, Ferguson has become a hot-bed of protest, and the Rev Jesse Jackson thinks the latest autopsy results will only lead to more outrage.
‘This is bound to escalate tensions,’ Rev Jac
No comments:
Post a Comment