Michael Brown Attacked Like a Hulking 'Demon,' Said Darren Wilson Who Feared He Would Be Killed
Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9, revealed in grand jury testimony released Monday evening that he was attacked by a hulking teenager who had the look of a "demon."
In his chilling account before the Grand Jury on Sept. 16 of what led to Brown's death on Aug. 9, Wilson described Brown as belligerent, petulant and showed no respect for his authority as an officer of the law. Wilson, who describes himself as 6-foot-4 and weighing approximately 210 pounds, explained that when he first tried to defend himself against Brown he was forced to grapple with the teenager's incredible strength.
"… When I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. … That's how big he felt and how small I felt just from grasping his arm," said Wilson.
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He further explained that during a fight with Brown inside his patrol vehicle, Brown dared him to shoot him and he was worried that a third punch from the teenager could have killed him.
"He grabs my gun, says 'You are too much of a [expletive] to shoot me.' The gun goes down into my hip and at that point I thought I was getting shot. I can feel his fingers try to get inside the trigger guard with my finger and I distinctly remember envisioning a bullet going into my leg. I thought that was the next step," Wilson said of the struggle.
Wilson explained that he attempted to fire his gun several times as he struggled with Brown in his patrol vehicle but it didn't go off.
"Like I said, I was just so focused on getting the gun out of me. When I did get it up to this point, he is still holding onto it and I pulled the trigger and nothing happens. It just clicked. I pulled it again, it just clicked again," he noted.
The gun eventually goes off after a third attempt.
"At this point, I'm like why isn't this working, this guy is going to kill me if he gets ahold of this gun. I pulled it a third time, it goes off. When it went off, it shot through my door panel and my window was down and glass flew off my door panel. I think that kind of startled him and me at the same time," Wilson said. "When I see the glass come up, it comes, a chunk about that big comes across my right hand and then I notice I have blood on the back of my hand."
Wilson explained that after the first shot is fired and he sees blood on his hand, Brown gives him an angry look that makes him appear "like a demon."
"After seeing the blood on my hand, I looked at him … he looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like demon, that's how angry he looked. He comes back toward me again with his hands up. At that point I just went like this, I tried to pull the trigger again, click, nothing happened," said Wilson.
He said he then saw Brown's hands and demon-like face coming toward him and he shielded his face as Brown hit him. That attack forces him to fire his gun without even taking aim.
"So I pulled the trigger, it just clicks that time. Without even looking, I just grab the top of my gun, the slide and I racked it, and I put my, still not looking just holding my hand up, I pulled the trigger again, it goes off."
Wilson is then asked how many times the gun went off in the police car and he said twice.
"When I look up after that, I see him start to run and I see a cloud of dust behind him. I then get out of my car. As I'm getting out of the car I tell dispatch, 'shots fired, send me more cars.'"
At this point, Wilson said he decides to go after Brown.
"We start running, kind of the same direction that Johnson had pointed. Across the street like a diagonal toward this, kind of like where the parking lot came in for Copper Creek Court and Canfield, right at that intersection. And there is a light pole right there, I remember him running toward the light pole," said Wilson.
He then said he continued to chase Brown, passing two cars until he suddenly stopped.
"When I passed the second one, about that same time, he stopped running and he's at that light pole. So when he stopped, I stopped. And then he starts to turn around, I tell him to get on the ground, get on the ground," said Wilson.
"He turns, and when he looked at me, he made like a grunting, like aggravated sound and he starts, he turns and he's coming back toward me. His first step is coming toward me, he kind of does like a stutter step to start running. When he does that, his left hand goes into a fist and goes to his side, his right hand goes under his shirt in his waistband and he starts running at me," he continued.
Wilson said Brown was wearing a shirt longer than his waistband and at the time he placed his hands under his waistband Brown made his first stride toward him.
"As he is coming toward me, I tell, keep telling him to get on the ground, he doesn't," Wilson continued.
"I shoot a series of shots. I don't know how many I shot, I just know I shot it. I know I missed a couple, I don't know how many, but I know I hit him at least once, because I saw his body kind of jerk or flinched. I remember having tunnel vision on his right hand, that's all, I'm focusing on that hand when I was shooting," he noted.
Brown, however, refused to stop even with Wilson's shooting.
"… After the last shot my tunnel vision kind of opened up. I remember seeing the smoke from the gun and I kind of looked at him and he's still coming at me, he hadn't slowed down.
"At this point I start backpedaling and again, I tell him to get on the ground, get on the ground, he doesn't. I shoot another round of shots. Again, I don't recall how many it was or if I hit him every time. I know at least once because he flinched again," said Wilson.
Officer Wilson said Brown appeared ready to "run through the shots" even after being shot several times already.
"At this point it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I'm shooting at him. And the face that he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn't even there, I wasn't even anything in his way," said Wilson.
The officer explained that it was at this point he was certain that if Brown got to him, he would be killed.
"Well, he keeps coming at me after that again. During the pause I tell him to get on the ground, get on the ground. He still keeps coming at me, gets about 8 to 10 feet away. At this point I'm backing up pretty rapidly, I'm backpedaling pretty good because I know if he reaches me, he'll kill me," said Wilson.
He said Brown then leaned forward toward him as if he was getting ready to tackle him, despite being shot already.
"His hand was in a fist at his side, this one is in his waistband under his shirt, and he was like this. Just coming straight at me like he was going to run through me. And when he gets about that 8 to 10 feet away, I look down, I remember looking at my sites and firing, all I see is his head and that's what I shot," said Wilson.
"I don't know how many, I know at least once because I saw the last one go into him. And then when it went into him, the demeanor on his face went blank, the aggression was gone, it was gone, I mean, I knew he stopped, the threat was stopped," he said.
"When he fell, he fell on his face. And I remember his feet coming up, like he had so much momentum carrying him forward that when he fell, his feet kind of came up a little bit and then they rested.
"At that point I got back on the radio and said, 'Send me a supervisor and every car you got.'"
READ DARREN WILSON'S COMPLETE GRAND JURY TESTIMONY BELOW.
