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Trial to start for white Charlotte officer who fatally shot unarmed black man Charlotte officer panicked before fatally shooting unarmed man, court hears
(about 9 hours later)
Opening statements were scheduled on Monday for the trial of a white Charlotte police officer charged in the shooting death of an unarmed black man after he wrecked his car and was knocking on doors looking for help. A white Charlotte police officer on trial for the on-duty killing of a black man panicked and didn’t identify himself or give any commands before shooting 12 times at the agitated man seeking help in an unfamiliar neighborhood after a car crash, a prosecutor said during opening statements on Monday.
Since the September 2013 shooting, the US has seen increasingly louder debate over police tactics and black men dying during arrests or while in custody in Ferguson, Missouri; North Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore and other places. Any agitation by Jonathan Ferrell was because of the September 2013 wreck, which was so violent he lost his cellphone and had to kick out a window to escape. He gave officer Randall Kerrick no reason to fear for his life and resort to deadly force, prosecutor Adren Harris said.
In the Charlotte case, investigators said 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell was killed after getting out of his wrecked vehicle in a co-worker’s neighborhood. Officer Randall Kerrick, 28, is charged with voluntary manslaughter. But an attorney for Kerrick said Ferrell made a number of bad choices after drinking and smoking marijuana following a fight with his fiancee. As officers arrived, he yelled “Shoot me!” Ferrell then charged at Kerrick and two other officers before they could assess the situation and tried to grab Kerrick’s gun when he fell on him after being shot several times, defense attorney Michael Greene said.
Ferrell couldn’t find his cellphone after exiting the wrecked car, prosecutors say. Instead, the former Florida A&M football player kicked out a window of the car and looked for help. He pounded on a woman’s door, but she thought he was trying to break into her home and called 911, prosecutors have said. “This case is not about race. It never was about race. This case was about choices, Jonathan Ferrell’s bad choices,” Greene said.
Three officers responded to the call. Kerrick was the only one to fire, shooting 12 bullets. Ten struck Ferrell and he died at the scene, authorities said. Kerrick, 28, is charged with voluntary manslaughter. He faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted. He was charged just days after the shooting, before black men died during arrests or while in custody in Ferguson, Missouri; North Charleston, South Carolina; Baltimore among other places, sparking a national debate on police tactics.
The events aren’t in great dispute, but the reason Kerrick shot is. Prosecutors say he didn’t follow training and shot without a reason. But Kerrick’s lawyers have promised they will show he had reasons to fear for his life and use deadly force. Among them, the lawyers say, is that Ferrell had been smoking marijuana and drinking and that when he approached another officer, he shouted: “Shoot me. Shoot me.” Lawyers for both sides said video from dashboard cameras will support their version of events. That video has never been shown publicly. The first witnesses called by prosecutors on Monday were friends and family of Ferrell. They described a man who was not violent or angry.
Kerrick joined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department in 2011 after working as an animal control officer. He faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted. That was intended to contradict Kerrick’s lawyer, who said Ferrell was angry the night he died after fighting with his fiancee over his future. He went drinking at a bar and smoked marijuana before crashing a car owned by his fiancee’s father, Greene said.
A grand jury initially refused to indict Kerrick on the voluntary manslaughter charge in January 2014, but prosecutors sent the case back a week later because the panel was missing four members and Kerrick was indicted. Jury selection took two weeks. Ferrell went to the first house he saw, kicking and pounding on the door screaming. A woman inside, alone with her one-year-old son, tripped her panic alarm and called police, reporting a home invasion. Ferrell, a 24-year-old former Florida A&M football player, hit the door so hard he dented it, and kept screaming “turn off your alarm!” Greene said.
Charlotte agreed to pay Ferrell’s family for $2.25m earlier this year to settle a lawsuit over the shooting. “No I need help to turn off the alarm!” said Greene, the defense attorney. “It is 2:36 in the morning. This is how the subject introduced himself.”
Kerrick and the two other officers found Ferrell a short distance away near the lighted neighborhood clubhouse. Ferrell charged the officers. At his autopsy, Ferrell’s DNA was found on Kerrick’s uniform from his neck to his feet and on the slide and trigger of the officer’s gun. Kerrick’s DNA was under Ferrell’s fingernails, Greene said.
But prosecutors said Ferrell, not thinking straight after the wreck, only started running because he feared for his life when one of the other officers said nothing before training the laser targets from his Taser at his chest.
Ferrell fell on Kerrick after he was shot four times, not because he was attacking the officer. The eight additional shots came as Ferrell writhed and trying to crawl to escape, not as he reached for the gun, Harris said.
The other two officers at the scene did not shoot and were not charged.
“Who polices the police when they do wrong?” Harris asked jurors, picked in a two-week process. “You do.”
Kerrick joined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department in 2011 after working as an animal control officer.
A grand jury initially refused to indict Kerrick on the voluntary manslaughter charge in January 2014, but prosecutors sent the case back a week later because the panel was missing four members. Kerrick was then indicted.
Charlotte agreed to pay Ferrell’s family $2.25m earlier this year to settle a lawsuit over the shooting.