The Ferguson police officer sits down with George Stephanopoulos for the first interview since fatally shooting Michael Brown last August.
- Nov 26, 2014
AceShowbiz - ABC News has scored the first interview with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson since he fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August. In light of the grand jury's decision that there would be no indictment of Wilson, the police officer sat down with George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday, November 25 to talk about the incident.
Sharing his side of the story, he said that Brown reached into his police car and grabbed for his gun and that made him fear for his life. "All I wanted to do was live," Wilson said. He said he was sorry about killing Brown, but his conscience is clear. "I don't think it's haunting, it's always going to be something that happened," he said, "The reason I have a clean conscience is because I did my job right." Asked if he would have fired if Brown had been white and not black, he replied without hesitant, "No question."
Recounting the incident, he said that the 300-pound teenager punched him in the face during the struggle after he stopped Brown and his pal when they were walking on the street that August night. "I didn't know if I'd be able to withstand another hit like that," he said, adding that he drew his gun to save himself.
There was a struggle for the gun, during which Wilson pulled the trigger two times but it jammed. It fired the third time, he said. Wilson, who said he had never shot a gun while on duty before, recalled that Brown kept running and ignored his commands to stop after he fired a series of shots. Claiming that Brown never raised his hands as several witnesses said, Wilson said Brown was closing in on him when he fired again, this time hitting the teenager in the head.
Following the grand jury's decision on Monday, 2,200 National Guardsmen were sent to Ferguson, Mo. to prevent riots. There have been protests in the St. Louis area after the grand jury cleared Wilson in the case.
