A grand jury has declined to indict the North Carolina police officer who shot and killed a 24-year-old black man seeking help for his injuries after a car crash.
Police Officer Randall Kerrick managed to avoid an indictment by the Mecklenburg County grand jury on voluntary manslaughter charges after the September 14 death of Jonathan Ferrell, a former college football player. Kerrick fired his service weapon 12 times, hitting Ferrell, who was seeking help at a nearby house, with ten of those shots.
When speaking to Raw Story, Attorney General Roy Cooper said that, “in the interest of justice, we will resubmit the case to the grand jury scheduled to meet Monday, January 27, to see an indictment for voluntary manslaughter, the most appropriate charge given the facts in the case.”
The slain 24-year-old’s family released a statement in the wake of the failure to indict expressing skepticism about justice for their son.
“While we are pleased that the Attorney General is going to resubmit the charges against Randall Kerrick to a new Grand Jury on Monday, we are skeptical given their inability to secure an indictment yesterday,” the statement read.
Kojo Nantambu, president of the Charlotte branch of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), had stronger words about the grand jury’s decision. “This is one of the most despicable decisions I have ever seen made by human beings.”
A rally is planned to portest the grand jury’s decision.
This case is just more evidence of the genetic disposition of Southern whites to racism. A man asks for help and gets murdered for doing so. Oh yes I forgot, the man was black and therefore the cop had the right to murder him in the South.
Didn’t you say you were not an American? So what you are doing is called stereotyping.
I wouldn’t call it stereotyping in this situation because the evidence strongly supports my contention.
Mecklinberg? I expected much better than this from them. At the same time What in the fuck does this young man’s being a football player have anything to do with it? Am I supposed to assume that because he was a football player he would never do something criminal? As if being a football player makes him a better person? Ask Michael VIck about that.
You want to report, report only those items that are specific. Like why was there a crash? What caused it?
This kind of reporting is bullshit.
Was excessive force used? Most likely. However without any information you are asking me to convict a police officer.
Here is what was missing:
Ferrell, recently moved to North Carolina to be with his fiancee, was in a serious car crash and after kicking out his back window, walked to a nearby cluster of homes and knocked on the first door for help.
A woman answered the door thinking it was her husband and immediately slammed it in Ferrell’s face before calling 911.
On the 911 tape released by the city, the woman can be heard sobbing to the dispatcher, begging them to hurry and telling them that her baby was in the house with her.
“He’s in his bed. I don’t know what to do. I can’t believe I opened the door…Please don’t let him get my baby,” she cried.
Kerrick was one of the responding officers and as they approached, Ferrell ran towards them for help. One of the officers allegedly tried to stop him with a Taser, but Ferrell continued to approach. That is when Kerrick shot him 12 times, 10 of the bullets piercing his body.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said that even if Ferrell didn’t stop running toward Kerrick, deadly force wasn’t justified.
Ferrell was unarmed, and both Monroe and Ferrell family attorney Chris Chestnut, who watched the dashboard video of the shooting, said that was clear. Chestnut said Ferrell had his hands outstretched, and they were empty.
“I can tell you this is what I saw: Absolutely, unequivocally, there were no words said, period, from any of the officers prior to Jonathan being hit with a stun gun, Chestnut said.
“He’s not yelling at them. He’s not threatening them,” he said.
At one point, an officer yelled “get on the ground,” but it was hard to tell if it was right before or right after the first shot was fired, he said.
“But I can tell you that those shots were in such close proximity that Jonathan never had an opportunity to reply. He had bullets in him before he could ever hit the ground. So there was not sufficient warning. No one ever told him to stop. He didn’t have time to react,” he said.
The results of Ferrell‘s toxicology report prove that he was not under the influence of alcohol or any drugs when he was gunned down by Kerrick.
Obvious stereo typing by the Woman and the police should be convicted of manslaugfhter.