"Black and Blue" - by TPO

 

Autopsy: Ferguson youth shot six times * by Frances Robles and Julie Bosman New York Times ===== #### ===== FERGUSON, Mo. -- Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager whose death at the hands of police sparked protests around the nation, was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed Sunday found. One of the bullets entered the top of Brown's skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury, according to Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner for New York City, who flew to Missouri on Sunday at the family's request to conduct the separate autopsy. It was likely the last of the bullets to hit him, he said. Brown was also shot four times in the right arm, he said, adding that all the bullets were fired from the front. "People have been asking: how many times was he shot? This information could have been released on Day One," Baden said in an interview Sunday after performing the autopsy. "They don't do that, even as feelings built up among the citizenry that there was a cover-up. We are hoping to alleviate that." [Baden elaborated.] Professor Shawn Parcells, a pathologist assistant based in Kansas, assisted Baden. "You do this for the families," Parcells said. The two medical experts conducted the four-hour examination Sunday at the Austin A. Layne Mortuary in St. Louis. Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for Brown's family who paid their travel expenses, hired them. "The sheer number of bullets and the way they were scattered all over his body showed this police officer had a brazen disregard for the very people he was supposed to protect in that community," Crump said. "We want to make sure people understand what this case is about: This case is about a police officer executing a young unarmed man in broad daylight." Baden stressed that his examination was not to determine whether the shooting was justified. "In my capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, I would say, 'You're not supposed to shoot so many times,' " said Baden, who retired from the state police in 2011. "Right now there is too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting." ================================= TPO's Note: - In spite of all the anger and other confused and irrational mindsets going on all sides, some matters have been accepted as incontrovertible facts. 1 - Michael Brown was unarmed. 2 - He was violently killed by an armed police officer. At this point, post-fact  justifications for the killing do not appear to hold water from whatever angle you look at them. ================================== * Source - http://www.twincities.com/nation/ci_26355623 (08/17/2014)