Michael Brown was shot in the front, not the back, as a New York Times article reports (hat tip to Daily Caller). The report is based on an autopsy performed by “Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York, who flew to Missouri on Sunday at the family’s request to conduct the separate autopsy,” the Times reports. Brown appears to have been shot six times, and possibly more, with two shots entering his head and four entering his arm, according to the report. This would seem to corroborate the eye witness account that Brown first ran from police, then came “back towards” the officer who shot him.
10:52 pm Update: Lawyers for Michael Brown’s family have a very different interpretation of the data than that Brown charged the officer. “Lawyers for the family of Michael Brown said a noted former medical examiner’s autopsy backs claims the 18-year-old was trying to surrender when he was killed,” Fox News reports. At any rate, the autopsy rules out the possibility that a police officer shot Brown in the back as he ran away. The autopsy indicates that Brown was facing the officer. Now the open question is whether Brown was seeking to surrender or acting aggressively toward police. As I’ve repeatedly noted, if the officer in question had been wearing a camera, its video almost certainly would have provided definitive evidence one way or the other. As it is, we may never move beyond “he said she said” claims.