What the grand jury heard: Ferguson witness accounts differ from story on street

The St. Louis County grand jury that declined to indict a white police officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, heard wildly contrasting testimony, including witness accounts that the hulking Brown was charging at Officer Darren Wilson when he was shot, and Wilson's own claim that Brown taunted him as he grabbed for his gun, saying, "you are too much of a p---- to shoot me."

The grand jury decision came late Monday in Missouri after more than 70 hours of testimony from roughly 60 witnesses, spanning 25 days over three months, and touched off fresh looting and rioting on the streets of Ferguson and St. Louis. As the 12 members of the grand jury heard evidence in closed proceedings, claims from purported witnesses and civil rights activists told the tale of a youth gunned down mercilessly as he held his hands up in surrender. But the grand jurors, including six white men, three white women, two black women and one black man, were told a different story.