The Ferguson police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager Saturday apparently did not know that he was a suspect in a convenience store robbery that happened just minutes earlier, police said in a press conference Friday.Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson said the department released surveillance video and a police report from the robbery earlier today because media had requested the footage and documents.
"The initial contact between the officer and Mr. Brown was not related to the robbery," Jackson said at the news conference this afternoon.
Jackson also said that officer Darren Wilson might not have been aware of the robbery at all when he stopped Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson, who was with Brown when the alleged robbery took place.
In an earlier news conference Friday morning, however, Jackson did not make clear that the incidents were unrelated. He said radio dispatchers had reported the robbery and a suspect description shortly before Wilson encountered Brown.
Wilson reportedly stopped Brown and Johnson because they were walking in the middle of the street and blocking traffic, Jackson said.
Police have not released any report related to the actual shooting.
Here's the police report from the robbery:
Michael Brown Police Report
The report states that Brown is suspected of stealing cigars from the store. Johnson's lawyer confirmed to MSNBC that Brown took cigars from the store.
During the robbery, there was allegedly an altercation between Brown and a person who appears to be a store clerk, according to the report.
Brown was shot a short time later when he encountered Wilson nearby.
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