Ezra Klein thinks Officer Wilson’s story is unbelievable.

He makes a couple of big points. Generally, he asks:

Why did Michael Brown, an 18-year-old kid headed to college, refuse to move from the middle of the street to the sidewalk? Why would he curse out a police officer? Why would he attack a police officer? Why would he dare a police officer to shoot him? Why would he charge a police officer holding a gun? Why would he put his hand in his waistband while charging, even though he was unarmed?

Good questions, but you could, in the same spirit, ask why an 18-year-old kid headed to college would shove and then menace a convenience store clerk in the act of robbing his store of cigarillos?

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Klein also wonders about this cigarillo hand-off described by Wilson:

I was doing the, just scrambling, trying to get his arms out of my face and him from grabbing me and everything else. He turned to his…if he’s at my vehicle, he turned to his left and handed the first subject. He said, “here, take these.” He was holding a pack of — several packs of cigarillos which was just, what was stolen from the Market Store was several packs of cigarillos. He said, “here, hold these” and when he did that I grabbed his right arm trying just to control something at that point. Um, as I was holding it, and he came around, he came around with his arm extended, fist made, and went like that straight at my face with his…a full swing from his left hand.

This strikes me as very strange as well, but there is no advantage to Wilson that I can see in including this detail, so it’s unclear why he would make it up.

Then, there’s this detail about Brown’s hand in his waistband, which also struck me as odd:

When he stopped, he turned, looked at me, made like a grunting noise and had the most intense, aggressive face I’ve ever seen on a person. When he looked at me, he then did like the hop…you know, like people do to start running. And, he started running at me. During his first stride, he took his right hand put it under his shirt into his waistband. And I ordered him to stop and get on the ground again. He didn’t. I fired multiple shots. After I fired the multiple shots, I paused a second, yelled at him to get on the ground again, he was still in the same state. Still charging, hand still in his waistband, hadn’t slowed down.

Klein’s gloss is that is a detail designed to show that Wilson thought Brown perhaps had a gun:

The stuff about Brown putting his hand in his waistband is meant to suggest that Wilson had reason to believe Brown might pull a gun. But it’s strange. We know Brown didn’t have a gun. And that’s an odd fact to obscure while charging a police officer.

But there is another explanation, which is simply that Brown may have needed to pull up his pants. It’s difficult to tell from the video of the convenience store, but it certainly looks as though his pants are falling down slightly just as he walks around. Also, a witness comes close to describing the same thing as Officer Wilson, albeit tentatively:

I never seen him put his hands up or anything. I can’t recall the movement he did. I’m not sure if he pulled his pants up or whatever he did but I seen some type of movement and he started charging towards the police officer.

None of this, in other words, makes Officer Wilson unbelievable.

UPDATE:

It has been pointed out to me that the cigarillo hand-off is corroborated by Dorian Johnson, and also that Ezra Klein has acknowledged this:

The idea that Brown stopped punching Wilson just long enough to hand his contraband to his friend struck me, on first read, as beyond belief. But Johnson backs at least part of that account:
While the officer is grabbing ahold of Big Mike, he kind loses grip around his neck, that’s how I knew he had a good grip. He never fully let Big Mike go, now he has a good grasp on his shirt. So now Big Mike’s able to turn different angles while he is trying to pull away. And at a point he turned, now we are face-to-face, and he put his hands like, grab these, Bro. And in shock, I’m so not unconsciously, my hands open to where he could put the rillos in my hand.
So Johnson and Wilson agree: there is a moment when Brown turns to Johnson and hands over the stolen cigarillos. But Wilson tells it as Brown freeing his hands to more effectively pummel Wilson, and Johnson tells it as Brown freeing his hands to better escape Wilson.