Witness says she recorded Brown shooting, dropped phone in toilet
Posted: December 18, 2014 - 1:06pm
FERGUSON, Missouri -- A witness to Michael Brown's shooting death at the hands of a policeman says she recorded the whole thing on her phone -- then accidentally dropped the device in a toilet.
The woman known as "Witness 41" told authorities that she watched Officer Darren Wilson shoot Brown while the black teen was on his knees with his hands up, defenseless, The Smoking Gun reported.
She testified before the grand jury that later decided not to indict Wilson, sparking riots in Ferguson and protests across the U.S.
But the woman made no mention in her testimony of the video she had purportedly collected, officials say. She brought it up with prosecutors only afterwards, as the lawyers were saying goodbye in the hallway, the website reported after reviewing transcripts of her testimony.
Prosecutor Kathi Alizadeh "made the comment about how it is too bad there weren't surveillance cameras in the complex."
Here's what happened next, according to The Smoking Gun, or TSG:
"Witness 41 replied that she had video of 'the entire thing on her phone,' Alizadeh recalled in comments to the 12 members of the grand jury. Alizadeh then asked 'Witness 41' what part of the incident she captured, and if the shooting itself was taped. (She) responded that she had recorded the shooting.
However, 'Witness 41' then claimed, 'But I dropped the phone in the toilet.' "
Alizadeh said that the phone could still undergo a forensic examination, and the files could be recovered.
"She said it is in the junk yard," Alizadeh told jurors. "She got so mad she threw it away."
Prosecutors gave the jury the option of recalling the witness, but they did not.
The woman, a mother of four who lives alone, told the jury she has been diagnosed with "mood swings, three personalities," TSG reported.
Without medication, she told jurors, "I can't take nobody hollering at me period. ... Just makes me angry, makes me want to hurt them."
The woman was identified as a witness by FBI agents during a canvass of apartment buildings near Canfield Drive, the street where the unarmed Brown was killed.
The report comes just two days after another Smoking Gun story that cast doubt on a key witness on Wilson's behalf.
That woman, 45-year-old Sandra McElroy, has a documented history of racist remarks, criminal behavior, and mental illness. She also once before provided false testimony in a case, TSG reported.
On McElroy's YouTube page, she makes no effort to hide her racist animus, the site says.
"Next to a clip about the disappearance of a white woman who had a baby with a black man is the comment, 'see what happens when you bed down with a monkey have ape babies and party with them.' A clip about the sentencing of two black women for murder is captioned, 'put them monkeys in a cage.'
McElroy also subscribes to the "We Are Darren Wilson" video channel, TSG reported.