(KTVI) – Two key witnesses to the police shooting of Michael Brown are construction workers who just happened to be working nearby.
The two unidentified men, who were working for a Jefferson County construction company, watched Michael Brown die from half a football field away.
One witness spoke to Fox 2’s Shirley Washington on August 12. The other spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jeremy Kohler for an article published Friday.
“The fact he just happened to be there, it was just pure happenstance that he was there. He really couldn’t put him in any kind of camp in terms of what you’d expect him to say,” Kohler said.
Both witnesses said they did not see the reported altercation at the police car, but looked up after hearing a shot or shots.
After a reported foot chase, Kohler said the worker described a shot fired while Brown was running away.
The worker said Brown was “…kind of walking back toward the cop,” his “hands were still up” and the witness described Officer Wilson “backing up as he fired.”
The eyewitness who spoke to Fox 2 described hearing two pops, then looked up to see Brown.
“I saw him staggering and running and when he finally caught himself he threw his hands up and started screaming OK OK OK OK OK and then the three officers come through the thing and the one just started shooting,” the worker told Fox 2`s Washington on August 12.
The Fox 2 witness immediately wrote down what he saw. He also drew a diagram showing him and his co-worker about 50 yards away. He wrote that the officer “emptied his gun into the guy.”
The witness who spoke to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Brown’s hands started going down after the third shot and he reportedly “moved about 25-feet toward Wilson, who kept backing away and firing.”
From the workers’ vantage point, about 50 yards away, the worker who talked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said he could not tell if Brown’s motion toward Wilson after the shots was “a stumble to the ground” or “OK, I’m going to get you, you’re already shooting me.”
The eyewitness who talked to Fox 2 described looking up to see Brown, “…stumbling and falling… coming down the street and when he caught himself that’s when he threw his arms up, then here come the officer. At first his gun was down, then walked till he got 8 to 10 feet away from him then shot. I heard 6 (or) 7 shots.”
Both witnesses said they have talked to investigators about what they saw. You can watch Shirley Washington report and read Jeremy Kohlers article.
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