“It’s an attempt to generate his 15 minutes, which he got,” St. Louis prosecutor says of new Michael Brown video https://t.co/H9n7JKbYS7 pic.twitter.com/Iq1rKRWK1B
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 13, 2017
St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCullough held a brief press conference on Monday to address some of the discussions in the media about the release of some additional footage included in a documentary that was taken from inside the convenience store showing Michael Brown approximately 10 hours before he was fatally shot after an altercation with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
One the filmmakers who released the video told The New York Times that he believes it shows Brown inside the store at around 1:oo AM on the morning he was eventually shot, possibly exchanging marijuana for cigarillos. The filmmaker argues the earlier videotape helps explain Brown’s behavior when he returned to the store about 10 hours later in the moments before his death and says he likely returned to the store in order to retrieve the cigarillos that he may have traded for the marijuana.
However, the storeowners strongly denied the filmmakers claim and now the St. Louis County prosecutor has done the same, saying it was edited and did not show the store employees clearly returning the cigarillos and other items to their spots on the shelves after Brown left the store that night. McCullough also said he believes the decision to release an edited version of the film was done in order to help the filmmaker “attempt to generate his 15 minutes” of fame, also noting that he seemingly “got it” based on various press accounts.
McCullough further explained that the interaction at the store some 10 hours before the actual shooting was simply irrelevant to any portion of the case that presented to the grand jury and that it why he did not show it to them. Nonetheless, he explained that his office was well aware of the existence of the video and noted that many members of the media also likely knew off its existence long before the filmmaker released an edited portion over the weekend. McCullough flatly told reporters there was “nothing new” about the video and it changed nothing in the case.
The prosecutor said his office now planned to put the full, unedited version of the video online at some point later today.
[image via screengrab]
