When the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch somehow obtained the
confidential autopsy report from the local medical examiner,
the newspaper consulted Dr. Judy Melinek to analyze the report and draw some very basic conclusions on how exactly Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mike Brown on August 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Her comments about the scuffle drew so much attention that one key point she made was totally missed. She says that the gunshot to the back of Mike Brown's upper arm could have come from behind while he was fleeing the scene, as described in the final three paragraphs of an MSNBC story:
All but one of the gunshots, Melinek said, seem to have struck Brown in the front of his body, which is consistent with witnesses who said Brown had been facing Wilson when he was shot. Depending on any witnesses physical proximity to the shooting, Brown could have been turning to Wilson in surrender, stumbling toward him after being shot or charging him.
The shot to the back of Brown’s upper arm, Melinek said, suggested he could have been shot from behind.
Nearly a half-dozen witnesses say that after an initial altercation at Wilson’s car, Brown fled and that Wilson gave chase, firing at him from behind. At one point, they say, Brown turned with his hands up and Wilson fired the final, fatal shots. Unnamed sources quoted in both local and national news reports say Wilson has testified that he fired twice from his car and several times after Brown ran, turned, and then charged at him.
This statement absolutely contradicts the headline and thrust of
this leading article published by the
Washington Post less than 24 hours later, which relied completely on the report published by the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
This clear contradiction exposes just why the autopsy report and grand jury proceedings were sealed in the first place. Attorney General Eric Holder
expressed his "exasperation" over these selective leaks, but it appears that even respected media outlets are misrepresenting the facts as well.