SmarterthanYou
rebel
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/grand-jury-decide-charlotte-police-shooting-case-t/ncwNT/
“What they decided … was that Officer Randall Kerrick did his job,” summarized his attorney, George Laughrun, after a grand jury in North Carolina refused to indict Kerrick for manslaughter in the death of Jonathan Ferrell. “Regretfully, it cost the life of Jonathan Ferrell. But he did his job.”
Some version of this formulaic response is uttered by cops, their superiors, or their attorneys anytime an officer is exonerated after an on-duty killing under dubious circumstances. In this case, the victim, an unarmed 24-year-old man with no criminal record, was shot ten times while he was asking the police for help.
At about 2:30 a.m. last September 14, Ferrell drove off an entrance road in a suburban neighborhood about 15 miles from Charlotte. (The coroner later found that his blood alcohol content was below the legal limit.) He went to a nearby home and knocked on the door in the hope of using a telephone. A woman inside the house, thinking that the large black man on her doorstep was trying to break into her home, called 911. After Kerrick and another officer responded, they found Ferrell walking on the street.
Rather than fleeing – as would be expected from a burglary suspect – Ferrell ran toward the officers, in the hope of enlisting their aid. The cops responded with lethal force – first shooting him with a Taser, and then opening fire. Kerrick fired twelve shots within the space of a few seconds, hitting the victim ten times. Ferrell died at the scene.
“What they decided … was that Officer Randall Kerrick did his job,” summarized his attorney, George Laughrun, after a grand jury in North Carolina refused to indict Kerrick for manslaughter in the death of Jonathan Ferrell. “Regretfully, it cost the life of Jonathan Ferrell. But he did his job.”
Some version of this formulaic response is uttered by cops, their superiors, or their attorneys anytime an officer is exonerated after an on-duty killing under dubious circumstances. In this case, the victim, an unarmed 24-year-old man with no criminal record, was shot ten times while he was asking the police for help.
At about 2:30 a.m. last September 14, Ferrell drove off an entrance road in a suburban neighborhood about 15 miles from Charlotte. (The coroner later found that his blood alcohol content was below the legal limit.) He went to a nearby home and knocked on the door in the hope of using a telephone. A woman inside the house, thinking that the large black man on her doorstep was trying to break into her home, called 911. After Kerrick and another officer responded, they found Ferrell walking on the street.
Rather than fleeing – as would be expected from a burglary suspect – Ferrell ran toward the officers, in the hope of enlisting their aid. The cops responded with lethal force – first shooting him with a Taser, and then opening fire. Kerrick fired twelve shots within the space of a few seconds, hitting the victim ten times. Ferrell died at the scene.