Police: Before Shooting, Brown Robbed Store

AUGUST 15--This is the Ferguson Police Department report that names Michael Brown as a suspect in a strong-arm robbery that occurred minutes before the Missouri teenager was shot dead last Saturday by an officer who had confronted him and a friend as they walked in the street.

The document was released this morning by police who also identified Officer Darren Wilson as the cop who killed the 18-year-old Brown.

According to the report, Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson, 22, are identified as suspects in the theft of a box of Swisher Sweets cigars (valued at $48.99) from a convenience mart. Cops were dispatched to the business in response to a call about “stealing in progress.”

As seen in store surveillance stills (seen above), the man identified by cops as Brown struggles with a worker who sought to lock the store before the men could leave with the stolen merchandise. The confrontation between Brown and the employee lasted about one minute, based on time-stamped videos.

According to the police report, the 6’ 4”, 292-pound Brown grabbed the worker by his shirt and subsequently pushed him into a display rack. As he headed for the door, Brown doubled back and advanced on the employee, “appearing to intimidate him. Brown then turns back around and walks out of camera view.”

Johnson, police say, will not be charged in connection with the felony robbery, and the report notes that the case has been “exceptionally cleared.” Johnson, who has been interviewed by FBI agents and local police, has admitted to investigators that he and Brown took the Swisher Sweets from the market, according to Freeman Bosley, Johnson’s lawyer.

Though police have redacted the name of the business where the robbery occurred, it appears to be the Ferguson Market & Liquor store on West Florissant Avenue. The store manager--whose name was also removed from the document--told responding officers that the suspects left the market and headed northbound on foot. Brown was shot to death on Canfield Drive at Cooper Creek Court, about half-a-mile northeast of the market.

Ferguson Police Department officials have not released any documents relating to Wilson’s killing of the unarmed Brown, who was shot multiple times. Nor have they revealed whether Wilson confronted Brown and Johnson in the course of his looking to identify suspects in the convenience store robbery. (5 pages)