Nearly three years after the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, security footage included in a new documentary raises questions about what happened in the hours before Brown’s death.
Jason Pollock, whose film “Stranger Fruit,” premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, told The New York Times that the tape challenges the police narrative of the events leading up to Brown’s death. Officers say that Brown committed a strong-armed robbery at a convenience store, which was why Officer Darren Wilson first confronted Brown.
But Pollock says the new footage raises other possibilities about what happened before the shooting.
“Michael was in the store the night before he died, and St. Louis County saw the video tape and didn’t tell us,” Pollock narrates in the film.
He argues that Brown appeared to give a store employee a small bag of marijuana in exchange for two boxes of cigarillos, which he left in the store for safe keeping. Pollock says what appeared to be a robbery was actually Brown returning to pick up how cigarillos.
The owners of the store dispute Pollock’s version of the events, saying the two visits were unrelated.
Whatever the truth about the store footage may be, it does not resolve questions about Officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of Brown. Wilson was cleared of criminal wrongdoings but resigned from the police force.
The shooting — and other police shootings of unarmed African-American men — led to nationwide protests. The ones in Ferguson were violent.
Pollock, who spent more than two years in Ferguson researching “Stranger Fruit,” questions the decision to not charge Wilson. “This shows their intention to make [Michael] look bad. And shows suppression of evidence,” the filmmaker says.
Sgt. Shawn McGuire of the St. Louis County Police Department said in an email Saturday to The New York Times that he could not confirm the video’s authenticity, and the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment.
Watch the video above of the new footage.
9 People Fired or Suspended for Black Lives Matter Comments (Photos)
In light of the recent fatal shootings of Keith L. Scott and Terence Crutcher and the subsequent protests, TheWrap looks back at the people who expressed their grievances on social media during the Dallas shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the demonstrations that followed. Here are 9 individuals whose voices were heard -- and who got in trouble for it.
Nate Weekley, a Detroit detective, was demoted to officer after posting on Facebook that "the only racists here are the piece of s--- Black Lives Matter terrorists and their supporters," reported the Detroit News.
The Daily Mail reported that Weekley's brother, Joseph Weekley, was a cop who was charged with involuntary manslaughter after accidentally killing a 7-year-old black girl during a raid.
Facebook
The first black Miss Alabama, Kalyn Chapman, was placed on administrative leave from her job at a South Florida PBS station after she posted a video in which she called the Dallas sniper a "martyr."
In her video she stated: "I'm dealing with a bit of guilt" because "I value human life. And I want to feel sad for them, but I can't help but feeling like the shooter was a martyr."
TheWrap
She later told news outlet WPMI that what the shooter did "was wrong, period," adding, "maybe martyr wasn’t the right word but it was what came to mind at that time.”
Fox
Charles Beau Menefee lost his job as a news producer at CBS46 in Atlanta after a slew of Facebook posts, including one in which he said "it would be cool if someone rained gunfire down on to the ignorant human turds at the next #blacklivesmatter March."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A South Carolina fire captain, Jimmy Morris, was fired after saying that he was going to run over Black Lives Matter protestors on Facebook, The State newspaper said. The Miami Herald reported that two other firefighters were fired in association with Morris' post.
Facebook
An Overland Park, Kansas police officer was fired after posting a menacing comment on a woman's Facebook photo, according to local channel KCTV.
A North Carolina deputy, Andrew Sutton, was suspended after joking on Facebook about killing people and calling Black Lives Matter followers "ignorant blind sheep."
ABC13
A Tennessee deputy, Jeremy McNary, was suspended after saying Black Lives Matter protestors should be hosed for blocking a highway, according to the New York Daily News.
Facebook
McNary's uncle told the Daily News that his nephew had served in the Marines and that he is not a racist nor bad cop, referencing a time he saved a child from drowning.
New York Daily News/Facebook
Diane Amoratis, a Jefferson Health employee, condemned Black Lives Matter protestors and praised police for dealing with a "fat, braided hair, piece of s--- troublemaker..." Philly.com reported. She added that a BLM protest should have been "bulldozed."
Jefferson Health ended up posting that "the individual is no longer at Jefferson."
Philly.com
Sgt. Derek Hale, a Louisville corrections sergeant was suspended after posting a contentious Facebook meme, according to WDRB. It featured an officer with the words: "If we really wanted you dead all we’d have to do is stop patrolling your neighborhoods... and wait."
BLM opponents suffered consequences for airing grievances after the protests
In light of the recent fatal shootings of Keith L. Scott and Terence Crutcher and the subsequent protests, TheWrap looks back at the people who expressed their grievances on social media during the Dallas shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the demonstrations that followed. Here are 9 individuals whose voices were heard -- and who got in trouble for it.