Shocking New Michael Brown Video, Court Admissions Muddy Previous Narratives

Over the weekend, new footage from a documentary called Stranger Fruit emerged that argues that a liquor store video at the heart of the Michael Brown shooting case doesn’t depict a robbery, but rather shows a low-level drug deal where Brown was exchanging weed for cigarillos.

The film’s director, Jason Pollack, says that this then suggests that the 18-year-old Brown wasn’t strong-arming the Ferguson Market and Liquor store before he was killed by then-Officer Darren Wilson, but was simply returning to pick up the cigarillos he had left behind.

This new video clip comes as court documents from a civil lawsuit have been released that contain some 173 admissions from Wilson about what happened on Aug. 9, 2014. Amongst those admissions from the wrongful death case, Wilson admits that: Brown never tried to remove his gun from his holster, that the holster is made to prevent someone from easily removing his weapon and that Wilson had pepper spray on him but did not attempt to use it any time during his fatal altercation with Brown.

Wilson later goes to admit that he fired his weapon 10 times during the incident, including a shot to Brown’s face and the top of his head. During the course of these events, Wilson wound up with literal blood on his hands, which he admitted to washing off even though he knew it was evidence in the case. He then cleared and bagged his own weapon with his fiancé, Wilson’s training officer at the department, present.

And then, in a section that’s gotten some of the most intense coverage, Wilson admits that he’s been formally accused of racial discrimination toward a citizen, that he has used the word “nigger” to refer to an African-American and has repeated a racist remark used by someone else.

Lawyers for Michael Brown’s family haven’t commented on the new admissions, as they say they’ve been told by the court not to do so, and lawyers for the city of Ferguson have also yet to comment on the admissions. However, St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch has called the new documentary “poorly edited” and “pathetic.” McCulloch convened a grand jury to look at the case but ultimately declined to prosecute Wilson.

You can read the full list of admissions here.