Before moving to Dallas, Texas to join TheBlaze, Dana Loesch lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Since the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9, Dana has offered a unique perspective on the incident and subsequent riots and protests on her daily radio program and weekly television show.
On Friday, a caller referred to as “Josie” to conceal her identity called into The Dana Loesch Radio Show claiming to have intimate details of the events that led to the shooting death of Brown. The caller said she learned the account from the “significant other” of the officer who shot Brown the day after the shooting occurred.
Josie’s account seemingly corroborates reports that have trickled out over the course of the last week suggesting Brown rushed the officer in the moments before he was shot. According to Josie, the officer first noticed Brown when he and his friend were walking down the middle of the road. After asking them to move out of the way, the men exchanged words with the police. The situation allegedly deteriorated from there.
“[The officer] pulled up ahead of them. And he was watching them, and then he gets the call-in that there was a strong-arm robbery. And they gave a description,” Josie said. “And he’s looking at them and they got something in their hands and it looks like it could be what, you know those cigars or whatever.”
“So he goes in reverse back to them, tries to get out of his car. They slam his door shut violently. I think he said Michael did,” she continued. “And then he opened the car again, you know, he tried to get out. He stands up. And then Michael just bum-rushes him and shoves him back into his car, punches him in the face and then, of course, [the officer] grabs for his gun. Michael grabbed for the gun. At one point, he got the gun entirely turned against his hip. And he shoves it away, and the gun goes off.”
At this point, Josie said Brown and his friend ran from the scene. After being ordered to “freeze,” the men turned around and once again rushed the officer.
“Michael and his friend turn around. And Michael taunts him… And then all the sudden he just started bumrushing him. He just started coming at him full speed. And so he just started shooting. And he just kept coming. And so he really thinks he was on something,” Josie said. “The final shot was in the forehead, and then he fell about two or three feet in front of the officer.”
Listen to the entire conversation below:
As TheBlaze reported, on Monday, CNN’s Don Lemon said the network was able to confirm the caller’s account “matches the account of [the officer] as to what happened at the time of the shooting.” On Tuesday, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Christine Byers learned more than a dozen witnesses have confirmed the officer’s account.
On radio this morning, Dana joined Pat and Stu to discuss her experience with the caller. She explained she was in contact with the women over the weekend, and while it remains an unverified account, the caller does seem sincere.
Dana explained she lived “five to 10 minutes away from Ferguson,” and she still has family and friends in the area. Throughout this ordeal, she has been frustrated with the media’s lack of knowledge about the community, which she describes as “middle class.”
“It's 67% black… It's still really diverse. They elected a white Republican mayor, and they have Starbucks. It's not the ghetto,” Dana said. “But this is obviously a huge story nationally, and it's completely consumed the community… I have friends who can't get to their homes after work because things are blocked off. There are family members that are trying to visit other people they know on hospice. They can't get in. The whole community is a war zone right now.”
Dana said she learned of the caller early in her program on Friday, but she refused to put the woman on air until her call screener could obtain a “legitimate phone number from her.”
“So we had her on. She said her piece. She did not want to say anything more beyond that. Then she got off air,” Dana said.
What hasn’t been reported is that the woman then called the radio station again and asked to speak to the programming director. The woman wanted the station to know she was sincere and was not looking to prank the show. Dana then followed up herself over the weekend.
“So I called her a few times. I left messages. And then last night, I started texting back and forth with her,” Dana explained. “And she didn't want to say anything else further on the record. Again, this is an unverified association… So I don't know if they're under an official gag order from the police or if maybe the family, which I suspect, has asked her to be quiet.”
While the call has gotten national attention because of CNN picking up the story, Dana felt the network did not handle its reporting responsibly.
“This is what angered me about CNN running this audio – not just uncredited – but out of context all day yesterday,” Dana said. “I was careful from the get-go to say this is an unvetted, unverified association. I said it on-air. I said it when I posted the audio. They ran it like this is the BFF [of the officer]… So I kind of took issue with that.”
In retrospect, Dana believes CNN already knew this was the officer’s side of the story, so it was not difficult to corroborate the caller’s account. Much like Glenn, Dana did not wish to speculate any further until the investigation is complete and the facts are known.
“There's a huge lesson in irony here because we have individuals right now that are right now on the streets… [And] that's fine,” Dana concluded. “But we are people talking about due process and screaming for justice and screaming for due process. Well, that extends both ways. The last I checked we live in the United States of America. Until this investigation is concluded, everybody gets the benefit of the doubt.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP
