There are new findings within Michael Brown’s official autopsy report.
According to an analysis of the document’s revelations acquired by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the publication reports that the teenager may not have had his hands up, but instead reached out for Officer Darren Wilson’s gun.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:
Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco, said the autopsy “supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.” She added, “If he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”
Dr. Melinek also stated that Brown was shot at close range:
Brown was facing Wilson when Brown took a shot to the forehead, two shots to the chest and a shot to the upper right arm. The wound to the top of Brown’s head would indicate he was falling forward or in a lunging position toward the shooter; the shot was instantly fatal.
A sixth shot that hit the forearm traveled from the back of the arm to the inner arm, which means Brown’s palms could not have been facing Wilson, as some witnesses have said, Melinek said. That trajectory shows Brown probably was not taking a standard surrender position with arms above the shoulders and palms out when he was hit, she said.
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With a second look at the report, St. Louis medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham, also revealed there was an altercation at Wilson’s police car.
“Someone got an injury that tore off skin and left it on the car,” Graham said. “That fits with everything else that came out. There’s blood in the car, now skin on the car, that shows something happened right there.”
A toxicology result also found traces of marijuana in Brown’s system. A third autopsy report has been released to federal officials, but not the public.