Mike James, Brad Heath and Peter Eisler

USA TODAY

Officer Darren Wilson testified before a St. Louis County grand jury that Michael Brown looked "like a demon" as the bigger man repeatedly punched and assaulted him in an Aug. 9 scuffle that turned deadly.

Wilson said Brown became overpoweringly violent after the officer asked him to stop walking in the middle of a street. "I've never seen that much aggression so quickly from a simple request to just walk on the sidewalk," Wilson testified.

Documents released by the prosecutors office offer a detailed account of the usually secret grand jury proceedings. In them, Wilson describes to the grand jury that he thought Brown was much stronger than him, and that he felt he needed to defend himself with bullets.

Wilson said he initially tried to subdue Brown by physical means, but that "when I grabbed him, the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding Hulk Hogan." Brown was described as 6-foot-4 and weighing well over 250 pounds.

Wilson said the episode began when he saw Brown and a companion, Dorian Johnson, walking down the middle of the street and that drivers were forced to go around them.





The next thing he noticed were Brown's bright-yellow socks with green marijuana leaves on them, he said. He pulled up in front of Johnson with his window down and said, "Why don't you guys walk on the sidewalk." Wilson said Johnson replied, "We are almost to our destination" and kept going.

He testified that he asked Brown: "What's wrong with the sidewalk?" Brown replied "---- what you have to say."

Wilson said he noticed that his right hand was full of Cigarillos, items that had been reported stolen in a robbery a few minutes earlier.

"That's when it clicked for me," he said. He said he checked his mirror again to confirm that Johnson was wearing a black shirt as was described in the previous robbery. Both men continued walking; "they never once stopped, never got on the sidewalk."

He said he backed up and angled his car to get in front of them. He said he told Brown: "Hey, come here for a minute."

"As I'm opening the door, he turns, faces me, looks at me, and says 'what the ---- are you going to do about it,' and shuts my door, slammed it shut." Wilson said he told Brown to get back, but Brown "was just staring at me, almost like to intimidate or overpower me."

Wilson said he opened his door to push Brown backward, and told him to "get the ---- back."

Wilson said he saw Brown duck down and start pushing into his car. He said Brown hit him in the side of his face with a fist. "I think it was a full-on swing, but not a full shot." Wilson said he shielded himself with his arm.

Brown had a handful of Cigarillos in his left hand. Wilson said he heard Brown say, "Hey man hold these," presumably to Johnson. Wilson said he was trying to open the door but couldn't. Then Wilson said Brown hit him again, with a "full swing."

"After he did that, next thing I remember is how do I get this guy away from me. What do I do not to get beaten inside my car," Wilson testified.

He said he considered using mace, but didn't want to reach with his left hand, which was shielding his face. Also, Brown's hands were in front of his own face, likely blocking the mace even if he could reach it. Wilson said he wears contacts; if any splashed back on him, he'd be unable to see. He said he considered grabbing his flashlight, but didn't think he could reach to the passenger side to get it.

"So the only other option I thought I had was my gun," he said. He drew it, he said, and told Brown to "get back or I'm going to shoot you."

Wilson said Brown immediately grabbed the gun and said, "You are too much of a ----- to shoot me." He said Brown grabbed the gun with his right hand and twisted it, pushing it down into Wilson's hip.

Wilson said he had already been punched in the face twice at that point and he feared "another one of those punches could knock me out or worse. … The third one could be fatal if he hit me right."

He said that when the gun went down to his hip he thought he was going to be shot. "I can feel his finger trying to get inside the trigger guard with my finger." "I distinctly remember envisioning a bullet going through my leg. I thought that was the next step."

Wilson said he managed to raise the gun. He pulled the trigger once "and nothing happens. It just clicks." He pulled it again and it clicked again. "At this point I'm like why isn't this working, this guy is going to kill me if he gets ahold of this gun. I pulled it a third time, it goes off." He said the bullet went through his door panel, "I think that kind of startled him and me at the same time."

After that, he said, Brown looked up at him with "the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon." He came back again, and Wilson said he pulled the trigger again and nothing happened. Brown hit him again and Wilson shielded his face, he said. He pulled the trigger again and it clicked. He racked his gun and pulled again; it fired.

After that, he said, Brown ran. "I see a cloud of dust behind him." He said he chased. Quickly, Brown stopped and so did Wilson, he said. "And then he starts to turn around. I tell him to get on the ground." Wilson said Brown looked at him and "made like a grunting, like aggravated sound." He said Brown made a fist with one hand and reached the other into his waistband and started running toward him.

"I shoot a series of shots," he said. He did not recall how many.

"I remember having tunnel vision on his right hand, that's all."

After the shots, Wilson said Brown was still coming at him. "He hadn't slowed down." He fired another round of shots. He saw Brown flinch but doesn't know how many rounds hit him or where. "The face that he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn't even there." He said that he was backing up, but that Brown closed to within 8 or 10 feet. "He started to lean forward as he got that close, like he was going to just tackle me, just go right through me."

Wilson said he fired again, aiming for Brown's head. "All I see is his head and that's what I shot." He didn't recall how many rounds he fired. "I saw the last one go into him. And then when it went into him, the demeanor on his face went blank, the aggression was gone. … The threat was stopped."

He said he saw Brown fall on his face, his momentum lifting his feet up as he crashed down.

Wilson testified that Brown's hitting him in the face was, in his mind, sufficient reason to use force.

Wilson said: "The whole thing started over will you just walk on the sidewalk and it developed into that in 45 seconds."