County autopsy: Michael Brown shot 6 times from front, had marijuana in system
Forensic pathologists and an attorney for the Brown family say a private autopsy confirms witness accounts that Michael Brown was shot at least six times. (AP)
By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, DeNeen L. Brown and Jerry Markon August 18 at 1:51 PM
FERGUSON, Mo. — An unarmed black teenager had marijuana in his system when he was fatally shot six times by a white police officer, two people familiar with the official county autopsy of Michael Brown said Monday.
The autopsy by St. Louis County chief medical examiner Mary Case, released to state prosecutors late Friday, found that Brown, 18, had six gunshot wounds to the head and chest and was shot from the front, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of Brown’s death, which has triggered violent protests in this St. Louis suburb that continued Sunday night.
In a brief interview with The Washington Post, Case declined to comment on specifics of her examination of Brown’s body but said she welcomes the two other autopsies being performed. One was done Sunday by forensic pathologists Michael Baden and Shawn Parcells, and Case said the second — ordered on Sunday by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. — will be done by Pentagon medical examiners.
“I welcome anyone who wants to do additional autopsies,’’ Case said. “Michael is someone I know and think highly of, and I think highly of the Armed Forces also. I’m not upset at all. This is highly controversial case, and it’s good that everyone interested in it can have a say.”
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Brown’s family, said Case’s results “sound consistent” with Baden’s highly publicized autopsy, but Crump said he was unaware of any marijuana in Brown’s system. Baden also concluded that Brown was shot at least six times, according to a preliminary report on an autopsy he and Parcells performed Sunday at a funeral home in Ferguson.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/official-autopsy-michael-brown-had-marijuana-in-his-system-was-shot-6-times/2014/08/18/8c016ef8-26f4-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html?hpid=z1