NONE In The Back: Brown Autopsy Shows He Was Shot In The Front Of The Body

An autopsy conducted on Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old fatally shot by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson last Saturday, shows that Brown was shot at least six times, twice in the head and all in the front of the body. The New York Times reported the results of a private autopsy conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, who was hired by the Brown family. Baden conducted the autopsy on Sunday, according to the Times. One bullet entered the top of Brown’s skull. Four struck him in the right arm. All bullets hit Brown in the front of the body, according to the autopsy. According to Baden, the shots did not appear to have been fired at close range given the lack of gunpowder on Brown’s body. A further determination on gunpowder will have to be made after assessing the teen’s clothes. Baden provided a diagram to the Times, which shows that the bullet that that struck Brown in the head entered while he was bent forward. “It can be because he’s giving up, or because he’s charging forward at the officer,” Baden said. Witnesses to the shooting have told the media that Brown was surrendering by crouching on the ground and holding his hands up as Wilson shot him. The autopsy undermines a common belief circulating among those who think Brown was executed that he was shot in the back as he ran from Wilson. Nevertheless, Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Brown family, said that the autopsy reveals a “brazen disregard” for Brown. “The sheer number of bullets and the way they were scattered all over his body showed this police officer had a brazen disregard for the very people he was supposed to protect in that community,” Crump told the Times. Ferguson police have claimed that Wilson shot Brown after the teen punched him in the face during a struggle inside of the officer’s police cruiser. Wilson claimed that Brown tried to grab his service weapon. Earlier Sunday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a federal autopsy conducted on Brown. His family has said that it does not trust local law enforcement to conduct a thorough review. The results of local law enforcement agencies’ autopsy have not been released.