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Ferguson Documents: The Physical Evidence

This undated photo released by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office on Monday, shows Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson during his medical examination after he fatally shot Michael Brown.
AP
This undated photo released by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office on Monday, shows Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson during his medical examination after he fatally shot Michael Brown.

Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson during his medical examination.
AP
Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson during his medical examination.

Darren Wilson during his medical examination.
AP
Darren Wilson during his medical examination.

We've already touched on Darren Wilson's testimony and that of the dozens of people who testified as witnesses in front of the grand jury.

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Now let's look at some of the physical evidence:

Officer Wilson fired 12 shots in all in his encounter in 18-year-old Michael Brown. Of those, at least six hit Brown, killing him, according to the post-mortem examination report conducted by the St. Louis County Medical Examiner.

Wilson fired two shots inside the police car. One of them was recovered. When the confrontation continued outside, more shots were fired.

The post-mortem report found a gunshot entrance wound on the vertex of Brown's scalp. There was an entrance wound in his central forehead with a corresponding exit wound in his right jaw; another entrance wound in his upper right chest and one on his lateral right chest. There was an entrance wound in the upper ventral right arm, along with a corresponding exit wound on the upper dorsal right arm. There was also a gunshot entrance wound on the dorsal right forearm, along with a corresponding exit wound of the medial ventral right forearm.

Brown was also grazed in his right bicep and right thumb. He also sustained injuries to his face, left hand, right chest, left forearm and left hip, along with abrasions.

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Investigators could not determine the order of the shots.

This is all important because early witnesses had said Brown was shot in the back.

Another piece of important evidence comes from DNA analysis. It found Brown's blood was on Wilson's gun (a Sig Sauer P229) and on the inside of his vehicle.

In order words, this seems to support Wilson's version of events, in which there was a confrontation while he was inside the police vehicle.

Another big piece of physical evidence comes in the form of photographs. They show Wilson on the night of the confrontation. We'll let you decide whether his account of the confrontation match his injuries (one of the pictures is at the top of this post):

X-Rays taken at hospital showed he did not break any bones. An exam revealed "minimal palpable pain."

The doctor who saw him diagnosed him with a "facial contusion" or "the medical term for a bruise."

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