Eleven years after the officer shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked waves of protest against police brutality, the friend who was with Brown when it happened has been shot dead.
Dorian Johnson, 33, was the victim of a shooting at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday at a block of apartments less than a mile from where Brown died, according to Ferguson Police spokesperson Patricia Washington.
Johnson’s account of Brown’s 2014 killing helped inspire the iconic “hands up, don’t shoot” protest chant heard in demonstrations across the US that year, though subsequent investigations called into question the details of Brown’s actions before he died.
One person was taken into custody but was released with no criminal charges filed, according to Melissa Price Smith, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney.
“This appears to be a domestic incident involving a claim of self-defense,” Price Smith said in a statement, adding the case remains under investigation and her office remains in ongoing consultation with Ferguson police about possible future criminal charges.
The police department emphasized that Johnson was not shot by an officer.
“There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect. No officers, Ferguson or otherwise, were involved in this incident other than to begin our investigation,” the police department said in a statement.
Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, was shot by White police officer Darren Wilson on Canfield Drive on August 9, 2014. He was unarmed. Wilson argued he shot Brown in self-defense as Brown charged at him.
Johnson said he was with Brown when Wilson pulled up in his patrol car. After a confrontation between Brown and Wilson through the driver’s side window of the police car – during which Brown was shot in the hand – Johnson and Brown ran off.
Moments later, Brown moved back toward Wilson and the fatal shots were fired, according to federal investigators. Johnson said Brown had faced the officer with his hands up in surrender, but that assertion has been hotly contested, and a Justice Department investigation found that other witnesses “gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson,” including balling up his fists and pulling up his pants.
Johnson’s version of events helped spark the “hands up, don’t shoot” chant that echoed across nationwide protests over police practices that followed Brown’s killing and the grand jury decision not to indict Wilson. Brown’s family brought a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and reached a settlement in 2017.
Despite its inconclusive findings on details of the shooting, the Justice Department concluded in a separate civil rights inquiry that the Ferguson Police Department and the city’s municipal court engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discrimination against Black residents.
Ten years on from Michael Brown’s shooting, Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle told CNN that Brown’s killing continued to affect the department and its approach. He pointed to a roughly 50% African American representation on the force – compared to fewer than five out of the approximately 60 officers employed in 2014. Officers received training on implicit bias and the use of force, Doyle said.
