A medical examiner hired by the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot to death by a police officer in Missouri, said Monday that Brown could have survived all but the last of six shots — a bullet to the top of the head.
“This is the last shot, and this is the only shot that is not treatable,” said the medical examiner, Dr. Michael Baden, pointing to a diagram of where the six bullets entered Brown’s body during the confrontation with an officer in the city of Ferguson on Aug. 9.
Brown’s parents did not speak at a press conference to discuss the autopsy results. But a family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said that the mother wanted to know: “What else do we need to give them to arrest the killer of my child?”
Baden and an assistant performed the autopsy Sunday at the request of the family. St. Louis County medical examiners performed an autopsy earlier but have not released results.
Daryl Parks, another lawyer for the Brown family, said that the private autopsy supported witness accounts that Brown tried to surrender to the officer, Darren Wilson.
Baden said that the private autopsy turned up no physical signs of a struggle between Brown and the officer — only abrasions on the right side of Brown’s face that appear to have been caused when Brown fell to the ground. Police and witness descriptions of the encounter both include a struggle between Brown and the officer.
IN-DEPTH
- Autopsy Shows Michael Brown Shot At Least Six Times
- National Guard Sent to Restore 'Peace and Order' in Ferguson
- Photos: Ferguson's Streets Become a Battleground