A friend of Michael Brown who witnessed the Missouri teenager’s fatal shooting by a police officer more than a decade ago has been shot dead, police say.
Dorian Johnson, 33, sustained multiple gunshot wounds at about 8.30 p.m. on Sunday in Ferguson, according to the Ferguson Police Department.
Cops arrived at the address, less than a mile away from where Brown was killed in 2014, to find that Johnson had succumbed to his injuries.
One person was taken into custody but was released with no criminal charges filed within the maximum holding time, police said in a statement Monday.
“That suspect is presumed innocent,” Melissa Price Smith, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, said in a statement on Monday, adding that the case remains under investigation.
Smith said that law enforcement officers are investigating what “appears to be a domestic incident involving a claim of self-defense.” Police emphasized in an initial statement that Johnson was not shot by an officer.
“There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect,” they said. “No officers, Ferguson or otherwise, were involved in this incident other than to begin our investigation.”
Johnson said that he was with Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, on August 9, 2014, when a police officer Darren Wilson pulled up in his patrol car on Canfield Drive.
After an initial confrontation through the police vehicle’s window, Brown was shot in the hand and the teens ran off.
As Brown moved back towards Wilson, the police officer opened fire, claiming that the unarmed teen charged at him.
Some witnesses, including Johnson, contested that Brown faced Wilson, surrendering, with his hands above his head before shots were fired.
The claim has been disputed, with a Justice Department investigation casting doubt on the “hands up” account after other witnesses “gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson.”
Brown was struck six times in the chest and his body was left in the street for hours.
Nationwide protests broke out amid a rallying cry of “hands up, don’t shoot.” The slogan was adopted by members of Congress, recording artists, advocacy groups and athletes.
A Justice Department civil rights investigation in March 2015 concluded that the Ferguson Police Department and the city’s municipal court engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discrimination against African-Americans.
After the grand jury decided not to indict Wilson months earlier in November 2014, Brown’s family brought a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and reached a settlement in 2017.
