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Unorthodox police procedures emerge in grand jury documents Unorthodox police procedures emerge in grand jury documents
(about 7 hours later)
When Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson left the scene of the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the officer returned to the police station unescorted, washed blood off his hands and placed his recently fired pistol into an evidence bag himself.When Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson left the scene of the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, the officer returned to the police station unescorted, washed blood off his hands and placed his recently fired pistol into an evidence bag himself.
Such seemingly un­or­tho­dox forensic practices emerged from the voluminous testimony released in the aftermath of a grand jury decision Monday night not to indict Wilson. Those actions, described in grand jury testimony, violated protocols for handling a crime scene and securing evidence, according to experts in policing procedures and Justice Department documents.
The transcript showed that local officers who interviewed Wilson immediately after the shooting did not tape the conversations and sometimes conducted them with other police personnel present. An investigator with the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s office testified that he opted not to take measurements at the crime scene. Wilson’s movements after the shooting were among a number of police actions in the aftermath of Brown’s death that experts said were unusual. The grand jury transcripts revealed, for example, that the officers who interviewed Wilson immediately after the shooting did not tape the conversations. They also showed that an investigator from the medical examiner’s office opted not to take measurements at the crime scene and arrived there believing that what happened between Brown and Wilson was “self-explanatory.’’
“I got there, it was self-explanatory what happened,” said the investigator, whose name was not released, in his grand jury testimony. “Somebody shot somebody. There was no question as to any distances or anything of that nature at the time I was there.” It is unclear how these un­or­tho­dox practices may have influenced the investigation of a shooting that has triggered a national conversation about race and police practices. The grand jury’s decision Monday not to indict Wilson in connection with the shooting death has led to protests nationwide.
The investigator, described as a 25-year veteran, did not take his own photographs at the scene of the shooting because his camera battery was dead, he said. Instead, he relied on photographs shot by the St. Louis County Police Department. Police and forensic officials have not responded to requests for comment over a two-day period.
The medical examiner and Ferguson Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the critical first minutes after a shooting, investigators are trained to follow a time-tested process of protecting the scene to ensure that evidence is not compromised, according to the experts and documents. A shooting suspect — even a police officer — must be cordoned off in a controlled area and stripped of his clothing, his weapon secured by investigators, and must be escorted by officers if he leaves.
When Wilson returned to the police department after the shooting, he was permitted to drive by himself. No one photographed his bloodied hands before he washed up at the station because “there was no photographer available.” “An officer driving himself back? Wrong. An officer booking his own gun into evidence? Wrong,” said David Klinger, an expert on police shootings with the University of Missouri at St. Louis who is a former police officer. “The appropriate investigative procedures were not followed.’’
Later, injuries to Wilson’s head caused by punches he said were thrown by Brown were photographed by a local detective at the Fraternal Order of Police building, not at police headquarters. A 2013 Justice Department manual on processing crime scenes, designed in conjunction with police departments across the country, addresses what experts said was perhaps the most serious breach of protocol after Brown was killed: Wilson washing the blood off his hands.
An FBI agent interviewed by the grand jury said he did tape his interview with Wilson. The agent, who was not identified, said Wilson washed up immediately after the shooting because he was worried about the danger presented by some one else’s blood, not about preserving evidence. In wording that is underlined for emphasis, the manual says: “Do not allow suspect to use bathroom facilities, or to alter his/her appearance, including brushing hair or washing hands.’’
“His concern was not of evidence, but as a biohazard or what possible blood hazards it might attract,” said the agent, who like other witnesses was not identified by name. The manual spells out in detail how to handle evidence and adhere to what is known as the chain of custody, a meticulous preservation of evidence until it is presented in court. Among the most important aspects, the manual said: securing the crime scene with “minimal contamination,’’ confiscating the weapon and collecting the suspect’s clothing while keeping him in a controlled location at the scene.
At the crime scene, the medical examiner did not see stippling, the residue of gunpowder on clothing that can indicate shots fired at close range. Eventually an autopsy found evidence of stippling. Chuck Drago, a former Florida police chief who runs a consulting firm that deals with police practices, described Wilson’s actions in the aftermath of the shooting — especially washing the blood off his hands and handling his own gun — as “totally un­or­tho­dox and unusual. This would be considered very out of line — very, very bad from an investigative perspective.’’
In the extended interviews, prosecutors do not come across as particularly aggressive or curious. But they do question police procedures on a couple of occasions, including the failure by Ferguson and St. Louis County investigators to tape their interviews with the officer after the shooting. Drago said investigators are supposed to immediately seize a suspect’s weapon, even that of an officer, and not allow a suspect to clean himself up. “They need to make sure he doesn’t wipe off any evidence, destroy any evidence or who knows what,’’ Drago said.
Why not tape these answers? a detective with St. Louis County was asked. “It is just common practice that we do not,” the detective said. Drago added that the failure to record interviews with investigators and the lack of measurements at the crime scene also are unusual. The FBI had a controversial policy for years of not taping witness interviews, but Drago said that most police departments have been recording interviews for at least two decades.
Prosecutors also asked why Wilson was permitted to handle evidence in the case himself. “He had informed me that after he responded to the police station, he had packaged his weapon and then he directed my attention to an evidence envelope,’’ said the St. Louis County detective. Is it customary for the person who was involved in such an incident “to handle and package their own gun as evidence?” the detective was asked. Mike Zopf, a lawyer and former police training specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said Wilson might have failed to follow proper procedure because it was the first time he fired his weapon. “There may have been a little bit of shock going on,” Zopf said. “Even in the most justifiable shooting, there’s a trauma that’s unfamiliar to the human brain.’’
Not according to the rules of the St. Louis County Police Department, the detective said. But Ferguson may have had its own rules, the detective said. He was not aware of “any policies or procedures they have in place” on the topic. Jim Towey, one of Wilson’s attorneys, said his client was being careful under the circumstances, taking care to package his weapon in an evidence bag and washing off blood, which was getting sticky and uncomfortable.
“Darren Wilson had told me that he had packaged the weapon and it was currently in that evidence bag,” the detective told the grand jury. “Now, at that point in time I never checked to verify that; it was done later,” the detective said. “He drove himself back to the station because other [officers] were going to the scene. He realized that he had blood on him. It was getting sticky and it was gross and he didn’t know if it was his or Brown’s,” Towey said. He added: “He immediately packaged his weapon from his possession. He did it himself because there was no one back at the station to do it for him, to the best of my recollection.”
The accounts occasionally revealed inconsistencies. For example, two investigators who interviewed Wilson immediately after the incident said Wilson told them only one shot was fired by Wilson from inside the Chevy Tahoe police cruiser. Towey said that although initial interviews with Wilson were not taped, an initial statement was put in writing and other interviews were taped.
But in his testimony, Wilson said two shots were fired inside the car, among several misfires. The grand jury transcripts also described actions by others in law enforcement that experts considered unusual. An investigator with the St. Louis County medical examiner’s office testified that he chose not to take measurements at the scene because when he arrived, “ it was self-explanatory what happened. Somebody shot somebody. There was no question as to any distances or anything of that nature at the time I was there.” (The voluminous documents released Monday show that at some point authorities did take measurements.)
The shots and misfires preceded the fatal shooting of Brown on the street a few moments later. The shots were fired from the car after Wilson said Brown had reached in to the vehicle, swinging at the officer and grabbing for his pistol. According to the transcripts, the investigator, who was not identified but was described as a 25-year veteran, did not take his own photographs at the scene of the shooting because, he said, his camera’s battery was dead. Instead, he relied on photographs taken by the St. Louis County police.
Wilson described Brown as having the intimidating size of “Hulk Hogan.” At one point, he said, Brown pushed his pistol down toward the floor, eventually forcing the firearm into the officer’s thigh. Wilson said Brown appeared to be trying to squeeze the trigger. Eventually, Wilson described getting free of Brown’s grip and raising his weapon toward his attacker. The first attempts by Wilson to get off a round at his attacker failed, he said, as the gun only clicked without firing a bullet. When Wilson returned to the police department after the shooting, no one prevented him from driving himself. No one photographed his bloodied hands before he washed up at the station because “there was no photographer available,” an investigator quoted in the transcript said.
Wilson ultimately said he fired two shots inside the vehicle. After one shot fired he noticed shattered glass and saw blood on his hand, an indication, he said, that Brown had been hit. An FBI agent interviewed by the grand jury said he did record his interview with Wilson. The agent, who was not identified, said Wilson washed up immediately after the shooting because he was worried about the danger presented by some one else’s blood, not about preserving evidence.
However, a Ferguson police officer and a detective with the St. Louis County Police said that Wilson told them only one shot was fired inside the car. The two officers — one a 38-year veteran of the Ferguson police force and the other a county detective — were among the first to talk with Wilson after the fatal shooting. Wilson and the other officers said the weapon failed to fire multiple times inside the vehicle. “His concern was not of evidence, but as a biohazard or what possible blood hazards it might attract,” said the agent, who like other witnesses was not identified.
In the extended interviews, prosecutors questioned police procedures on a couple of occasions, including the decisions by Ferguson and St. Louis County investigators not to tape their initial interviews with the officer after the shooting.
Why not tape these answers, a St. Louis County detective was asked. “It is just common practice that we do not,” the detective said.
Prosecutors also asked why Wilson was permitted to handle evidence. “He had informed me that after he responded to the police station, he had packaged his weapon and then he directed my attention to an evidence envelope,’’ a St. Louis County detective said. Is it customary for the person who was involved in such an incident “to handle and package their own gun as evidence,” the detective was asked.
Not according to the rules of the St. Louis County Police Department, the detective said. But Ferguson may have had its own rules, the detective said. He was not aware of “any policies or procedures they have in place” on the topic, and Ferguson officials have declined to address the subject.
Despite Wilson’s un­or­tho­dox practices, transcripts appear to show that prosecutors treated him with greater deference than they showed some other grand jury witnesses.
Prosecutors, who led the inquiry, regularly grilled witnesses, testing their memories and going to great lengths to discredit some.
But in questioning Wilson, prosecutors were far more gentle and at times seemed to be guiding his answers.
At one point, a prosecutor asks Wilson: “So you got out of the car, you are running, you are telling [Brown] to stop; is that right?
“Correct,’’ Wilson responds.
“And he’s not listening?’’ the prosecutor asks.
“No,’’ Wilson says.
At another point, a prosecutor tells Wilson that he doesn’t want to “put words in your mouth” even while asking that, as Brown was allegedly striking the officer in the face as he sat in his police car, “it was your opinion that you needed to pull out your weapon?’’
“I felt another one of those punches in my face could knock me out or worse,’’ Wilson testified. “I mean, it was, he’s obviously bigger than I was and stronger and I’ve already taken two to the face and . . . the third one could be fatal if it hit me right.’’
Cheryl W. Thompson, John Sullivan, David S. Fallis and Alice Crites contributed to this report.