The Slatest

CNN Obtains Video of Witness Describing Brown Shooting Moments After It Happened

CNN has obtained a video, taken shortly after Michael Brown was shot, that shows a contractor who had been working near the shooting site describing the incident in a manner that matches other eyewitness testimony—raising his arms and shouting “man, he was going like this,” as if to suggest that Brown had adopted a posture of surrender before he died.

Two contractors are shown in the video, and both have spoken to CNN; one also spoke previously to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and one to Fox affiliate KTVI. The individual who is shouting and raising his arms in in the video told CNN that “the cop didn’t say get on the ground. He just kept shooting.” The other said that he saw officer Darren Wilson “chasing” Brown, that Wilson fired a shot at Brown while Brown’s back was turned, and that Brown raised his hands before he died, though it’s not clear at what point the witness saw Brown’s hands raised. (For what it’s worth, it seems like the worker who spoke to KTVI is the one wearing a pink shirt in the video and that the worker who spoke to the Post-Dispatch is wearing a green shirt.)

The CNN account notes that the workers are not from Ferguson and did not know the Brown family—a detail that could increase their perceived objectivity vis a vis witnesses from Brown’s neighborhood.