Sharpton Doesn’t Buy New Evidence Backing up Officer Darren Wilson’s Story in Ferguson

Officer Darren Wilson's Account of Michael Brown Shooting Stirs Critics (NBC News)

The Rev. Al Sharpton held a rally Saturday slamming a report that said the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, told investigators that he feared for his life during a "scuffle" with the unarmed teenager. Officer Darren Wilson testified to a grand jury that Brown had reached for his gun while the two were involved in a struggle in Wilson's car on Aug. 9, the New York Times reported on its website Friday night. The report cited "government officials briefed on the federal civil rights investigation." A government official has told NBC News that forensic evidence in the case "validates that (Wilson) had reason to fear for his safety" but said the investigation is not complete and that no conclusions have yet been reached.

During the National Action Network rally in New York City, Sharpton, who is the founder of the organization and an MSNBC host, said that government officials are speaking about the evidence in "an attempt to set a climate" so that the grand jury deciding whether to charge Wilson in Brown's death has "an excuse not to proceed."