n his first interview since shooting Michael Brown, Officer Darren Wilson has defended his behavior, saying he has a “clean conscience” regarding his actions and that he would do the same thing again if he had to.
During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulous, Wilson said he saw Brown walking down the middle of the street, along the yellow line, when he asked him to move over. When he didn’t, the officer said he pulled his car beside him. Describing an altercation that lasted 45 seconds, Wilson explained that he shot Brown six times.
There is a still a federal investigation underway into whether Wilson violated the teen’s civil rights, but that hasn’t stopped the officer from agreeing to break his silence, and give a national broadcast about his version of what happened that day.
He said he feared for his life during the confrontation, believing Brown was attempting to wrestle his gun away from him.
“I can feel his hand trying to come over my hand and get inside the trigger guard and try to shoot me with my own gun,” Wilson said. Asked if he believed he would have acted the same way if Brown was white, Wilson responded: “No question.”
The officer said he was comfortable that he had acted correctly.
“I don’t think it’s haunting. It’s always going to be something that happened,” he said, adding that his conscience was clear because “I know I did my job right.”
Lawyers for the family of slain youth Michael Brown denounced the prosecutor whose grand jury hearing found that police officer Darren Wilson had killed the 18-year-old in self-defense.
“This process is broken. This process should be indicted,” Brown family lawyer Benjamin Crump told a news conference. Crump criticized the way Wilson had not been cross-examined when he appeared before the grand jury, which decided not to indict him over the August 9 shooting.
