In a previous post, I reported that House Repairman saw the Monte Carlo drive around the Canfield Green Apartment Complex's Building 18 a short time after Michael Brown fell dead. In this post here, I will report how Dorian Johnson ran.
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| MC = Monte Carlo Red Line = Monte Carlo's path after Brown was shot dead PV = Police Vehicle MV = Minivan SW = Stairwell Woman |
Prosecutor After he [Brown] collapsed, did the officer continue to fire?
House Repairman No.
Prosecutor Did you see the officer? Did he go up to Mike Brown's body at that point?
House Repairman At that point, something else had caught my attention, Mr. Johnson caught my attention at that time when he ran across the street.
Prosecutor At that point you are not necessarily looking at the officer and Mike Brown? You are focusing on Mr. Johnson?
House Repairman Correct.
Prosecutor You recognized him as the shorter guy who had been with Mike Brown that you had seen earlier?
House Repairman Yes.
Prosecutor You said he ran around -- like in front of -- the police vehicle?
House Repairman Correct.
Prosecutor And then [Johnson] ran toward this area where you said you had seen this car?
House Repairman Yes.
Prosecutor And this was a car that had been over here [pointing to a map in the court room] and had pulled around this horseshoe driveway around Building Number 18?
House Repairman Correct.
Prosecutor And you heard Dorian Johnson say what?
House Repairman "He just killed him, he just killed him."
Prosecutor Okay. And then you said he then ran into the back of the complex. Did you ever see him again?
House Repairman No.
[Pages 185 - 186]----------
In a previous interview with detectives on August 11, two days after the incident, House Repairman told the same story in a muddled manner. (In the below passage, I have added paragraph numbers for the convenience of my further explanation.)
1) It was a blue Monte Carlo, a newer model Monte Carlo two-door. It was closer [than the police vehicle] to the scene where the [fatal] shooting was at that occurred.
2) They [the Monte Carlo occupants] then drove off and made a left into the apartments and drove around the apartment and then came and stopped.
3) Mr. Brown’s friend [Johnson] that he [Brown] was walking with earlier -- I didn’t see him the whole time that this was all going on with a confrontation with the police and the shooting and everything.
4) At the end, after Mr. Brown had dropped [dead], I seen his friend [Johnson] come out of nowhere and run across the street and said that “Dog, they just killed him, they just killed him.”
5) And he ran [through] the back fields of Canfield, the back open field.
[Page 5]I think paragraphs 3 and 4 are a long parenthetical, out-of-sequence insertion in the witness’s narrative. If we skip over those two paragraphs, then this witness’s train of thought was to contrast what “they” (the Monte Carlo) did against what “he” (Johnson) did:
They then drove off and made a left into the apartments and drove around the apartment and then came and stopped. ....
And he ran [into] the back fields of Canfield, the back open fields.In other words, Johnson was not in the Monte Carlo when it made the left turn and drove around the apartments. Rather, Johnson was running into the back fields. Ultimately, however, the Monte Carlo and Johnson might have met at his apartment.
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The investigation report records that on the afternoon of the incident, August 9, 2014, a detective interviewed a female -- I will call her "Stairwell Woman" -- who saw Johnson running west after she heard a series of about five gunshots. Because of her location -- at a Canfield Drive address -- she could not see the shooting itself. In the above photograph, I have marked, with the label SW, the stairway where I guess that she was located. (A prior article describes the apartment buildings' standard features.)
.... [Stairwell Woman] said she was sitting on the second-floor stairway at [address number] Canfield [Drive] when she heard subjects yelling. She could not understand what they were yelling. She heard what sounded like a gunshot, so she went into the second-floor apartment on the left. She then heard what sounded like five gunshots in rapid succession. When she looked outside, she saw a black male with shoulder-length dreadlocks with blonde tips wearing a red shirt, gray pants, and colorful Nike shoes. She said he ran to the west on Canfield Drive from the scene.
[Stairwell Woman] was asked several times if she witnessed or saw the shooting. She said she did not. She said she went into the apartment after the first shot. She would not provide any information on the people she was with. ....
[Page 42]As far as I know, Stairwell Woman never was questioned again.
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| Johnson (on the left) was wearing a black shirt, gray pants and light-tan shoes. |
Although the clothing description was faulty, Johnson did have long dreadlocks blonde tips.
I think that Stairwell Woman did see Johnson running west briefly.
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Stairwell Man told the grand jury that Johnson ran past the police vehicle to the south side of Canfield Drive and then past Building 18.
As the shooting is going on, he [Johnson] hid behind the white car and then he tried to get in the white car. But then, I guess, they denied him, so he ran. ...
He ran back behind the police car and ran behind this building [pointing to a map in the courtroom].
[Page 252].
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