FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) – A convenience store is disputing a new documentary’s claims that surveillance video suggests Michael Brown didn’t rob the store before he was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
Filmmaker Jason Pollock tells The New York Times he believes the previously unreleased footage shows Brown trading a small amount of marijuana for a bag of cigarillos around 1 a.m. on Aug. 9, 2014. Pollock reasons Brown intended to come back later for the cigarillos.
An attorney for the store and its employees says no such transaction took place.
Store co-owner Andy Patel tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Brown “grabbed the cigarillos and stole them” when confronted inside the store about 10 hours later, shortly before the shooting.
Surveillance video shows Brown strong-arming Patel while leaving the store.