St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office/Reuters

A grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, has ruled that there is no probable cause to believe Officer Darren Wilson committed a crime when he killed Michael Brown. Put another way, in their estimation, the state doesn't possess enough facts to cause a reasonable person to conclude that criminal charges are true. This judgment was shaped in part by the testimony of eye-witnesses to the shooting. Prosecutor Robert McCulloch has now released transcripts of many witness interviews.  

The main takeaway: Eyewitness testimony is highly unreliable. To read through the accounts is to see seemingly honest people contradict one another on basic, significant matters of fact. It is seemingly impossible to know what really happened.

But that doesn't mean nothing is clear.

Officer Wilson's account is a useful place to begin, especially since this is the first we've heard of it after all these months. Here's a condensed version that excises irrelevant details:

I heard on the radio that there was a stealing in progress from the Ferguson Market on West Florissant. I heard a brief description of a black male with a black t-shirt. As I was driving out down Canfield westbound I observed two black males walking in the center of the roadway on the center yellow line ... I remember seeing two cars I believe go around them and they hadn't moved ... I told 'em, "Hey guys, why don't you walk on the sidewalk." The first one said, "we're almost to our destination" and pointed this direction. I said, "okay, but what's wrong with the sidewalk?" And that was as they were passing my window. The second subject said, "Fuck what you have to say." After that I put the vehicle in reverse, backed up about ten feet to 'em, and attempted to open my door. Prior to backing up I did a call out on the radio ...

I say, "Hey, come here." He said, "What the fuck are you gonna do?" And he shut my door on me. The door was only open maybe a foot. I didn't have a chance to get my leg out. He came up and approached the door. I opened the door again trying to push him back. He said something. I'm not exactly sure what it was and then started swinging and punching at me from outside the vehicle ...

He has his body against the door preventing me from opening it. His stomach was against the door. His hands were inside on me... he had to duck his head to come inside my vehicle and he entered my vehicle with his hands, his arms, his head ... assaulting me ... The first time he struck me somewhere in this area, but it was a glancing blow 'cause I was able to defend a little bit. After that I was just scrambling to get his arms out of my face and grabbing me and everything else. He turned to his left and handed the first subject ...a pack of several cigarillos which was just stolen from the Market Store. And when he did that I grabbed his right arm trying just to control something. As I was holding it he came around with his arm extended, fist made, and went like that straight at my face with a full swing with his left hand ...

It was closed. It was in a fist.

After that, it kinda jarred me back and I yelled at him numerous times to stop and get back. I believe somewhere in there I put my hand up trying to just get him away from me. I was already trapped and didn't know what he was gonna do to me but I knew it wasn't gonna be good ... I mentally started thinking what should I do next? I started off with my mace ... couldn't reach it with my right hand. I was using this hand to block and all that. My left hand was blocking.

I couldn't reach around my body to grab it and I know how mace affects me so if I used that in such close proximity I was gonna be disabled, per se. And I didn't know if it was even gonna work on him, if I would be able to get a clear shot or anything else. Then I was picturing my belt. I don't carry a taser so that option was gone and even if I had one with a cartridge on there, it probably wouldn't have hit him anywhere. I have a flashlight I carry in my bag. My duty bag was on the passenger seat. I wasn't willing to give up more of my vehicle and my body to him to lean over and grab it and turn away from him.

I thought I was already compromised enough.

I drew my firearm, I pointed at him... "stop I'm going to shoot you" is what I ordered him to get on the ground. He said, "You're too much of a fuckin' pussy to shoot me" and grabbed my gun. When he grabbed my gun, he twisted it, pointed at me and into my hip, pelvic area. I know his hand was on my trigger finger, which was inside the trigger guard. And when he grabbed it he pushed it down and angled it to where it was like this is my hip. My firearm was in his control and pointed directly into my hip. At that point I was guaranteed he was going to shoot me. That's what I thought his goal was.

He had already manipulated [so that] I was not in control of the gun. I was able to tilt myself a little bit and push it down and away towards the side of my hip ... He had me completely overpowered while I was sitting in the car. Then I took my left arm and I pinned it against my back seat and pushed the gun forward ... it ended up being right about where the door handle is on the Tahoe ...

When it got there it was somewhat lined up with his silhouette and I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Pulled it again, nothing happened. I believe his fingers were over in between from the hammer and the slide preventing it from firing. I tried again. It fired. Glass shot up. The first thing I remember seeing is glass flying and blood all over my right hand on the back side of my hand. He looked like he was shocked initially, but he paused for a second and then came back into my vehicle and attempted to hit me multiple times.

He took a half step back and then he realized he was okay, I'm assuming. He came back towards my vehicle and ducked in again, his whole top half of his body came in and tried to hit me again. Fist, grab, I mean just crazy. Just random, anything he could get a hold of swinging wildly. And at that point I put my hand up like this and tried to fire again and my left hand was blocking my face. Just a click. Nothing happened. After the click I racked it and as I racked it just came up and shot again. When I turned and looked I realized I had missed ...

He was running east ...

This is a useful place to break because the story up to this point is not inconsistent with what eyewitnesses saw. There's no way to know for sure what Officer Wilson said to Michael Brown, or what the young man said back. But witnesses saw him leaning into the window of the police car. They saw some kind of struggle. They heard a gunshot fired and they saw Michael Brown start running away.