Dorian Johnson, Michael Brown Friend, Should be Charged with Perjury: Darren Wilson Friends

Dorian Johnson, Michael Brown Friend, Should be Charged with Perjury: Darren Wilson Friends
Dorian Johnson, witness to the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. is seen before funeral services at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri on August 25, 2014. (Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images)
Zachary Stieber
11/27/2014
Updated:
11/27/2014

Dorian Johnson, the so-called star witness in the Michael Brown case, should be charged with perjury.

That’s according to friends of Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Brown in Ferguson.

Wilson was not indicted by a grand jury, the jury announced this week.

But Wilson’s friends say Johnson--who was with Brown when he was shot--should be arrested for his statements to numerous media outlets after the shooting.

Johnson’s statements included the “hands up, don’t shoot” protest movement, because he said Brown had his hands up and said “don’t shoot” when Wilson shot him.

Johnson also claims that Wilson said “I’m gonna shoot you” while trying to pull Brown into the police car.

But the grand jury’s decision means that they did not believe Johnson’s account, which was also cast into question by the autopsy findings. For instance, the autopsy found that Brown was not shot in the back.

“Dorian Johnson is the one who started it all. If it was up to me he should be charged. He got right on CNN, he got right on TV and started blabbering his mouth off. I could tell by his voice that he was lying,” one of Wilson’s friends told the Daily Mail.

“Darren Wilson’s story makes sense regardless of whether I knew him or not.”

The friend criticized Johnson for claiming to hide behind a car but also see everything that happened. 

Johnson told CNN and MSNBC, among other outlets, that Wilson told him and Brown to “get the [expletive] on the sidewalk” while driving past them in his police vehicle.

Wilson, on his part, told the St. Louis County police department that he actually said “Hey guys, why don’t you walk on the sidewalk?”

Johnson said in the interviews that Wilson shot Brown in the back, at which point Brown spun around and held his hands up, saying “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!”

Wilson says that Brown charged at him and he was forced to fire to protect himself. Wilson fired six shots then, one of which hit Brown in the head.

This undated file photo provided by the Brown family shows Michael Brown. Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Brown Family, File)
This undated file photo provided by the Brown family shows Michael Brown. Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Brown Family, File)
In this photo provided by ABC News, ABC News' chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, left, interviews Ferguson, MO., police officer Darren Wilson, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 in Missouri. (AP Photo/ABC News, Kevin Lowder)
In this photo provided by ABC News, ABC News' chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, left, interviews Ferguson, MO., police officer Darren Wilson, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 in Missouri. (AP Photo/ABC News, Kevin Lowder)

 

Johnson disappeared soon after giving the interviews and only gave one other interview, a brief follow-up on CNN. His credibility was damaged after it emerged that he had previous criminal convictions including filing a false police report.

But the Daily Mail says it’s “unlikely” that Johnson will be arrested for perjury, referencing St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCullough’s response to a question about whether they would take action against any of the witnesses.

McCullough said no, though he added criticized some of them.

“Some witnesses maintained their original statement that Mr Brown had his hands in the air and was not moving toward the officer when he was shot,” he said.

“Several witnesses said Mr Brown did not raise his hands at all or that he raised them briefly and then dropped them and then turned toward Officer Wilson, who then fired several rounds.”