IMO
I think its reasonable to assume people are going to fall on either side of the fence, with very few if any truly sitting on the fence.
I'd love to say "I'm of the wait and see variety." but I'll be honest, I am waiting for more info, but at this time I lean more toward the LE being justified. To many people seem to have ulterior motives for it to be otherwise, to mark one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes quotes "In any crime, determine who has the most to gain." In this case the only thing the LE had to gain was some twisted power trip, which I don't see the evidence of that in Darren Wilson. As far as Michael Brown however I can see what he had to gain by assaulting and escaping the officer.
I do find it terribly vexing however how witnesses are unreliable at best, but then again aren't eyewitnesses the most unreliable testimony you can ever get?
Also there are the gunshots something I have some background with and so that is what I've been focusing on ...and what we know about them...
1. They were fired in rapid succession (based on the "Yer so purty" recording)
2. The shot that killed Michael Brown was the one at the top of his head (based on the autopsy report)
3. The shots we at a range beyond point blank (based on the autopsy report lack of residue and lack of penetration)
So a few unknowns (by known I mean we do not have concrete facts)
1. Where did the FIRST shot hit MB? If we know this we can get a notion of Michael Browns position at the time OW opened fire, we can also get a notion of WHERE OW was aiming.
2. How far was MB when he was fired upon? If we know this we could determine a better picture of HOW things occurred, we could also determine if OW was being advanced upon and how much pressure he was under, we could also determine if MB was taking flight at the time.
So now its time for me to put on my hunting cap.....
So we know MB was HIT by 7 bullets...again based on the autopsy..so lets start there...
We know that of those 7, there were 10 to 11 shots fired in rapid succession (within a frame of approx 6 seconds)
Time to put in some theory. If OW was using a Sig .357
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.357_SIG which is common among LE (its either that or the Glock IME)
So we will give him the lowest powder load....that puts his bullets moving at 1,210ft/sec
6 seconds, 10 bullets, each shot easily closing the distance in under a second...so the first bullet HAD to have hit him within 2 seconds (this is assuming the first shots missed or were an attempt at suppression, I'm going to assume this was not a attempt at suppression and that OW was a lousy shot due to getting messed up prior)
MB was close to the height as Darren Wilson I'd say appox 6ft1 to 6ft2. All I did was open ms paint....cut out OW and rotate him sideways and place him beside MB...he came up shorter, but I gave him a bit more head to toe height due to the fact he was about 3 feet from MB's body in the image.
So now we look again at the gunshots...
Two scenarios....
#1 MB with hands "up in surrender", OW aims Center of Mass. In this case if MB was not moving then we assume the first bullet hits MB and he keeps his hands raised whilst he is repeatedly shot, MB remains standing after the FIRST bullet hits him in the chest area, OW's following shots move upward toward MB's raised arm each shot approx 3 to 4 inches apart. While this seems possible that would mean ignoring the shot to MB's head and face, which would have brought his arms down, ruining the wound pattern's progression from his chest up the arm. Unless MB ignored being shot in the face and head, or OW hit with all of his first salvo and his second salvo hit MB in the face and then the head. However in this case that means MB barely flinched after being shot 4 times, which makes me doubt this.
#2 MB with hands "up in a advancing tackle" again OW aims Center of Mass assuming that his aim is still crap and his target is moving toward him, his first volley grazes MB's arms and his second salvo hits the chest, causing his target to go down, the remainder of the shots moving up (well tis MB's body falling down) leading to the last 2 rounds migrating up to MB's face and chest. In this 6 second scenario the first salvo injures MB, and since his arms are already close to the body, the shot migration seems more realistic but there is one issue I have with this theory as well. I find it unusual that aiming Center of Mass for such a large person as Mb that Ow managed to miss his torso until the second volley, where it is assumed he aimed (the pause in the recording) this raises to big questions in my mind...
1. The pause was OW aiming, which means he had time to think for a moment while he aimed and resumed firing, this would be the most likely time that MB would have surrendered (OK OK OK OK) OW riding on adrenalin and MB possibly still advancing on him, OW fires the fatal shots.
2. Blood spatter analysis, IF MB was advancing in a tackle, the investigation will reveal it, as there would be a distinct spatter pattern on his chest from the gunshots that grazed his arm but missed his chest, as the blood would have spewed across his torso, not phased through his arm. IF MB's hands were up however why is there not blood spatter on the pavement behind where he was standing as at least 2 of the gunshots were more tearing then piercing shots, which would have made a splatter onto the pavement, the spatter atop his head from having his arms raising would be impossible to distinguish however due to the head and facial trauma.
This is of course all IMO based on my own experience as an army medic.
