Video After The Jump
For two years the public has been led to believe that 18-year old Mike Brown had committed a strong-armed robbery of a Ferguson, Missouri convenience store moments before he was shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson.
Mike Brown (left) was killed during a confrontation with Ferguson cop Darren Wilson (right)
However, new footage from a documentary titled "Strange Fruit" appears to show that the Ferguson Police Department withheld information about the case that proves Brown did not commit a robbery.
At 1:15 in the morning on August 9, 2014, Brown entered Ferguson Market and Liquor. After grabbing something from the beverage cooler the teenager approaches the counter where he appears to hand the men behind it a small bag of weed.
Several employees sniff it's contents and pass it around.
The employees then hand Brown a box of cigarillos in exchange. He starts to walk out of the store, then turns around and hands them back. Most likely to hold onto until later, before leaving.
Mike Brown's mom Lesley McSpadden
“There was some type of exchange, for one thing, for another,” Brown's mom, Lesley McSpadden, says in the documentary. "That these people know each other well enough, that this is the relationship that they had."
Brown returned to the store later that afternoon to retrieve the cigarillos. There was a dispute, before Brown forcibly takes them and leaves.
Jay Kanzler, a lawyer for the convenience store denies there was an arrangement between Brown and the employees.
“There was no transaction,” Kanzler told the New York Times. “There was no understanding. No agreement. Those folks didn’t sell him cigarillos for pot. The reason he gave it back is he was walking out the door with unpaid merchandise and they wanted it back.”
Brown was soon confronted by Officer Wilson as he walked down a street with a friend. Wilson, claiming Brown attacked him, fatally shot the unarmed 18-year old.
A Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Wilson. He's since resigned from the police force.
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