Say it ain’t so! Dorian Johnson, the primary witness to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. — the man whose versions of events, which includes the claim that Brown was shot down in cold blood after raising his hands and submitting to arrest — has a history of lying to the police. He also has an outstanding warrant for a 2011 theft in Jefferson City according to the IJ Review via St. Louis Fox affiliate KQFX.
Johnson, who was walking with Brown when the shooting occurred, was earmarked to be the star witness in any potential prosecution proceedings against Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Brown. Now it appears that the prosecutor will have a slight credibility problem to deal with if Johnson is called upon to testify.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides some background to the 2011 charges against Johnson:
During the summer after his first semester at Lincoln, Johnson was charged with a misdemeanor after giving police a false first name after he was arrested on suspicion of theft. He later pleaded guilty.
He was accused of stealing a package containing a backpack belonging to someone else from an apartment complex. When he was arrested in that case, he identified himself as Derrick Johnson and said he was 16.
He is wanted for failing to appear in Jefferson City municipal court to answer to the theft charge, court officials said.
The Post-Dispatch further notes that the president of the local chapter of the NAACP knew about the charges against Johnson but was unfazed about Johnson’s having filed a false police report relating to the theft:
Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP chapter, which has been encouraging witnesses to come forward, said Johnson’s false report case “doesn’t concern me.”
“He’s been very clear about what occurred, and now we have … four others stating facts that support the statements he’s been making,” Pruitt said. “Why would that diminish other accounts that are relatively the same?”
But not all accounts of what went down are “relatively the same.” On Tuesday, Chritine Byers of the Post-Dispatch tweeted:
Police sources tell me more than a dozen witnesses have corroborated cop’s version of events in shooting #Ferguson
— Christine Byers (@ChristineDByers) August 19, 2014
On the same day Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit confirmed via two St. Louis sources that police Darren Wilson suffered facial fractures during his confrontation with Brown. A source inside the Prosecuting Attorney’s office corroborated a report by St. Louis County Police that Wilson had suffered an “orbital blowout fracture to the eye socket.”
Yesterday, Fox New added that Wilson had been badly beaten before the shooting occurred:
According to the well-placed source, Wilson was coming off another case in the neighborhood on Aug. 9 when he ordered Michael Brown and his friend Dorain [sic] Johnson to stop walking in the middle of the road because they were obstructing traffic. However, the confrontation quickly escalated into physical violence, the source said.
“They ignored him and the officer started to get out of the car to tell them to move,” the source said. “They shoved him right back in, that’s when Michael Brown leans in and starts beating Officer Wilson in the head and the face.”
The source claims that there is “solid proof” that there was a struggle between Brown and Wilson for the policeman’s firearm, resulting in the gun going off — although it still remains unclear at this stage who pulled the trigger. Brown started to walk away according to the account, prompting Wilson to draw his gun and order him to freeze. Brown, the source said, raised his hands in the air, and turned around saying, “What, you’re going to shoot me?”
At that point, the source told FoxNews.com, the 6-foot-4, 292-pound Brown charged Wilson, prompting the officer to fire at least six shots at him, including the fatal bullet that penetrated the top of Brown’s skull, according to an independent autopsy conducted at the request of Brown’s family.
Wilson suffered a fractured eye socket in the fracas, and was left dazed by the initial confrontation, the source said. He is now “traumatized, scared for his life and his family, injured and terrified” that a grand jury, which began hearing evidence on Wednesday, will “make some kind of example out of him,” the source said.
