Michael Brown’s friend who witnessed Ferguson shooting and fabricated ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ line arrested on drug charges
- Dorian Johnson was picked up by police in St Louis along with his two brother Wednesday
- Charged with resisting arrest and trying to discard drug-laced cough syrup
- Johnson recently filed $25,000 lawsuit against City of Ferguson, ex-officer Darren Wilson and former police chief
- Johnson was walking with Michael Brown in Ferguson August 9, 2014, when 18-year-old got into a fight with Wilson and was shot
Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com
A key witness to the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has been arrested on charges of drug possession and resisitng arrest.
Dorian Johnson, best known for falsely claiming that Brown, 18, called out ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ before Officer Darren Wilson opened fire on him in August 2014, was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon.
Johnson was arrested on Acme Avenue in St Louis at around 3.20pm along with his two brothers.
Dorian Johnson, a friend of Michael Brown who was with him during the August shooting, was arrested Wednesday in St Louis along with his two brothers on charges of drug possession and resisting arrest
Police sources told St Louis Post Dispatch Johnson tried to get rid of narcotics and ‘interfere’ with officers as they were trying to arrest one of his brothers on a drug charge.
His other sibling was arrested on a warrant related to an armed robbery.
Shots heard around the world: Brown was shot multiple times by Wilson, sparking months of protests
His arrest comes just days day after Johnson filed a lawsuit against the City of Ferguson, former officer Darren Wilson and the town’s ousted police chief.
Johnson contends in his lawsuit that Wilson initiated the confrontation that ended in Brown’s. He claims that Wilson used excessive force and ‘acted with deliberate indifference or reckless disregard’ for Johnson’s rights.
A grand jury and the US Justice Department declined to charge Wilson, who has left the police force
Johnson is seeking damages of at least $25,000 for psychological scars and emotional distress.
On August 9, 2014, Johnson was walking with Michael Brown back to his house in Ferguson when he and Wilson got in tussle that ended in tragedy and led to weeks of violent demonstrations.
False narrative: Johnson is best known for falsely claiming that Brown, 18, called out ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ before Officer Wilson opened fire
Dorian Johnson later publicly claimed that Brown’s last words to Wilson were, ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ – a phrase that had become a rallying cry for protesters from coast to coast.
In the months following the shooting, a grand jury was unable to corroborate Johnson’s version of events, and the US Department of Justice similarly failed to find evidence that Brown tried to surrender to Wilson.
