FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — An attorney says he will release an unedited version of surveillance video showing Michael Brown in a convenience store in Ferguson, Missouri, the same day the black 18-year-old was shot to death by a white police officer.
Jay Kanzler, attorney for Ferguson Market & Liquor, said on Sunday that he wants to disprove claims in a documentary, “Stranger Fruit,” that the video, from Aug. 9, 2014, suggests Brown didn’t rob the store just minutes before his death.
The new documentary premiered Saturday at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
Kanzler said the video used in the documentary was edited. He said he planned to release an unedited version Monday.
About 100 protesters gathered outside the store Sunday night in response to the documentary. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that seven or eight shots were heard, but no injuries reported. Police arrested some protesters and cleared the scene when the market closed.
Prosecutors on Monday charged a St. Louis man with trying to set a Ferguson police car on fire during the protests.
Police say Henry Stokes, 44, put a napkin in the gas tank opening of the police car and tried to use a lighter to set it aflame, but fled when police saw him.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch was holding a Monday afternoon news conference to address video footage in the documentary.
One of the filmmakers, Jason Pollock, told The New York Times he believes the footage shows Brown trading a small amount of marijuana for a bag of cigarillos around 1 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2014. The video doesn’t clearly show what was exchanged, but shows Brown leaving behind the cigarillos.
Pollock reasons Brown intended to come back later for the bag of cigarillos. But a lawyer for the store and its employees said no such transaction took place, and that Brown stole the cigarillos when he returned to the store about 10 hours later.
“There was no understanding. No agreement. Those folks didn’t sell him cigarillos for pot. The reason he gave it back is he was walking out the door with unpaid merchandise and they wanted it back,” Kanzler told the New York newspaper.
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