The audio recording purported to be of the Ferguson, MO shooting turns out to be real after all. CNN aired it without verifying it, bringing to mind how both NBC and ABC mistreated evidence in the Trayvon Martin shooting. Glide video chat app exonerates CNN in this case.
According to Glide, which bills itself as “The fastest way to send and receive video messages,” the audio was recorded on their service at the time of the shooting. It is timestamped, and the unidentified user who recorded it had no ability to edit it after the fact.
A Glide user living nearby (whose identity is being protected) was simply using the Glide app on their smartphone exactly as it was designed – to instantly communicate with a friend through our real-time video texting service. Simultaneously, they also captured audio in the background of the gunshots allegedly fired at Michael Brown.
Because Glide is the only messaging application using streaming video technology, each message is simultaneously recorded and transmitted, so the exact time can be verified to the second. In this case, the video in question was created at 12:02:14 PM CDT on Saturday, August 9th.
The audio does not settle many questions. The pause and the number of shots — at least 10 — could suggest a few possible scenarios, favorable to either Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson.
The audio does not settle one way or the other whether Brown was trying to surrender to Officer Wilson, as some witnesses say, or whether he was attacking the officer, as Wilson claims.
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