Detective What was your thought in your mind when you saw he [Brown] didn't pay? You saw he had a handful of cigarillos. What was going through your mind?
Johnson In my mind, because how he got the cigarillos -- and it's not to be funny -- I believed I was being pranked.
Detective He was pranking you?
Johnson The whole store. I thought the whole store was in on the prank. .... If you go in the store and see where the cigarillos and boxes is located and the store clerk is right here in front of him [Brown], the fact that he [the clerk] is not doing anything possible to stop him [Brown] from grabbing them [the cigarillos], I felt like I was being pranked at that time. ....
When the clerk asked him what he want, he said, "I want these cigarillos", as he [Brown] grabbed it [the box of cigarillos]. ....
That [my thought] is ... "Is you pranking me? You got to be kidding me!"
And he turns around and hands them to me. .... He went back and did the same motion and same speech in the same tone. That's when he said, "Matter of fact, nah, I want these."
My hand's full, and his hands' full.
At that time, I thought I was being pranked.
The clerk, when he [Brown] grabbed the box [of cigarillos], the clerk did nothing. The second time he [Brown] reached for them, the clerk swatted, but it wasn't even a fast motion. It's like you smack a baby hand. I almost could not understand why was it so soft. ...
If somebody's trying to really steal from you, you should try to do more to stop somebody.
[Pages 53 - 54]Johnson's interpretation of the incident inside the Market -- the hilarity of the clerk's weak response to Brown's aggression -- should instruct our interpretation of the incident a few minutes later at Darren Wilson's police vehicle on Canfield drive.
Initially, Brown, Johnson and the Monte Carlo were not intimidated by police officer Darren Wilson. Rather, these three young African-Americans initially were mocking the police officer's inability to intimidate them. They were behaving in a playful spirit -- enjoying a lark, pulling pranks, befuddling non-Blacks.
Brown exclaimed "Fuck what you have to say", shut the door back on Wilson, and gave the cigarillos to Johnson -- just like Brown had shoved the Market clerk.
Johnson grabbed all the cigarillos and ran away laughing --just like Johnson had rushed away laughing from the Market.
MC Passenger told MC Owner to turn the Monte Carlo around and to drive close to the police vehicle. Maybe MC Passenger would be able to help Brown and Johnson out of their new hilarious predicament -- just like he had held the door open for Brown and Johnson at the Market.
On Canfield Drive, they felt they were merely making fun of a supposedly hapless White police officer -- playing a cigarillos-hide-and-seek game -- just as they had done with the Market clerk.
Their playful mood suddenly became serious, however, when Wilson fired his first gunshot from inside his vehicle.
Afterwards, Johnson and MC Passenger told their stories with a self-serving slant. They had been traveling along, minding their own business, and then suddenly a vicious White policeman launched a terrifying, murderous attack for no apparent reason. Their stories did not include the cigarillos-hide-and-seek games they played that day.
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In this blog's later articles, I will write that Johnson ran away laughing from Wilson's police vehicle. I will do so in order to correct Johnson's false story in which he stood next to Brown at the police vehicle and was terrified by the sight of Wilson shooting Brown. In fact, Johnson ran away before the first gunshot.
(I do not have, however, any direct evidence that Johnson was laughing as he ran away.)
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