Ferguson Police Chief had a second press conference today to answer some of the questions raised as a result of his first press conference.
Chief Jackson's latest presser for one purpose only, and that was to clarify the "oops, we might have misled you" moments in the first press conference. Because of course they misled us. That's why they're clarifying it in a late-afternoon followup on a Friday.
Here's the thing: Chief Jackson was forced to admit that the videotape and incident report on the alleged strong-arm robbery was not related to the officer shooting. They were not responding to the robbery call when they stopped Brown and subsequently shot him. Brown was stopped for jaywalking in the street.
According to the police report (embedded below), video surveillance allegedly showed Brown in an altercation with a store employee on Aug. 9. Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, grabbed cigars from the store and behind the counter, the police report said. Before they left the store, the employee attempted to stop Brown from taking the merchandise, according to the report. Brown grabbed the employee by the shirt and pushed him into a display rack in the store, the report said, and Brown and Johnson left the store with the cigars.
But the officer who stopped Brown wasn’t even aware that the teenager was a suspect in the robbery, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said Friday afternoon. He initially stopped Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, because the pair was blocking traffic as they walked in the middle of the street, he said.
When Jackson was asked why he even released the videotape and incident report, he told reporters it was because they asked for it. Then he informed everyone the report of the shooting would not be released until the investigation was complete.
