A private autopsy report performed by Dr. Cyril Wecht on VonDerrit Myers contradicts the account of the off-duty police officer who shot him while moonlighting for a security company.
Six bullets struck Myers on the rear part of his body and the other two were “not directly frontal,” Wecht said. One shot hit him on the right side of the face, between the eyebrow and the ear. Another shot struck him on the side of his left thigh.
Wecht said he did not know the order in which the wounds were inflicted. However, he said the head wound would have rendered him unconscious immediately.
Jermaine Wooten , one of the family’s lawyers, said the report’s findings –showing almost all shots from behind – contradict the story of the police officer, who has not been identified.
Wooten said police representatives have told them that Myers was facing the officer the entire time.
Wooten said Myers had to have been facing away from the officer for the first shots because he could not have endured the two shots to the side and remained standing. The head wound rendered him unconscious and the shot to his left thigh shattered his femur, dropping him immediately.
Also, this intriguing bit:
The lawyers met with the police department’s medical examiner Dr. Michael Graham, who said Myers’ DNA does not appear on the gun that Myers was allegedly carrying.
This contradicts the leaks that have come out in recent days about gunshot residue on Myers' hands.
The officer's attorney categorically dismissed Wecht's findings, saying that the conclusions are "just not true."
The official autopsy results are still awaiting toxicology tests, but this private autopsy seems to indicate where the battle lines will be drawn between the family and the police.
Meanwhile, Myers' memorial stands as a reminder of yet another black man shot for walking in a neighborhood police didn't think he should be in.
