Newly Released Surveillance Video Claims Proof Michael Brown Didn’t Rob Store; He Was Just Dealing Drugs

Newly released surveillance footage claims that Michael Brown was just dealing drugs at store, not robbing it.

Michael Brown Surveillance Footage From Film ‘Stranger Fruit’ Claims He Was Dealing Drugs

A newly released video claims to have proof that Michael Brown wasn’t the armed robber that police portrayed him as, instead they claim he was simply dealing drugs.

Documentary filmmaker Jason Pollock released his new film “Stranger Fruit” at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX. The goal of the film is to examine the shooting from the family’s perspective, rather than examining the facts.

In part of the film, Michael Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden explains that Michael Brown never committed a strong arm robbery of a convenience store as investigators claimed, and instead he was just dealing drugs to the employees.

Security footage obtained by Pollock shows Michael Brown in the store hours before he was killed. Pollock claims that the video shows Brown giving the store clerks marijuana in exchange for two boxes of cigarillos.

“There was some type of exchange, for one thing, for another,” Lesley McSpadden says.

Michael Brown left the store without the cigarillos, in what the filmmaker claims was the employees holding onto it for Brown.

However, NY Times reports that Jay Kanzler, the store’s attorney, says that Pollock’s narrative is all fabricated. “There was no transaction,” Mr. Kanzler said. “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.”

Later that day, store employees called the police after Michael Brown robbed them of several boxes of Swisher Sweets and assaulted an employee who tried to stop him. You can see the initial robbery video here (new video further below):

Even if Pollock’s interpretation of the video were accurate, we shouldn’t have to point out that being a drug dealer isn’t necessarily any better than robbing a store. The drug dealing is also irrelevant to Michael Brown attacking Officer Darren Wilson in an unprovoked assault, in which he tried to take the officer’s gun before Officer Wilson even had a chance to exit his vehicle.

Pollock’s suggestion of a police cover-up also doesn’t make much sense. The filmmaker discovered the video because investigators had mentioned the video in their publicly-available report; but the video hadn’t been widely released because it’s irrelevant to the robbery.

You can see the video clip from Stranger Fruit here:

Do you think that Michael Brown was just dealing drugs before he tried to kill Officer Darren Wilson? We’d like to hear what you think. Please let us know below.