But unlike earlier this week when photos of Jonathan Ferrell were shown in the Mecklenburg County courtroom where officer Randall Kerrick is being tried, a deputy turned off the monitor over the witness stand Thursday.
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14, 2013 shooting death of Ferrell, before ultimately charging him with voluntary manslaughter.
In the interview, Kerrick can be seen crying, he pauses when recounting that his fellow officer fired and missed Ferrell when he fired his taser, which forced him to use his gun.
He described Ferrell as having “some crazy-looking eyes … like a hologram of some sort, nearly looked like they were gray”. “It was very unusual”. Testimony resumes Monday at 9:30 a.m.
Neal told prosecutors that he would have opted to put Ferrell in a sleeper hold instead of shooting him. When Kerrick yelled to Ferrell to stop, the man turned his attention to the officer.
Kerrick said, “I felt like he was trying to get to my gun”.
“He picked up the pace, really quick”.
Kerrick said in the video, “I’m still backpedaling”. “I didn’t want him to take my gun from me”.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said at the time that even if Ferrell didn’t stop running toward Kerrick, deadly force wasn’t justified. He said the gunshots didn’t appear to faze Ferrell.
A lawsuit – that Charlotte reportedly settled this year for $2.25 million – alleges that Kerrick used “stealth and surprise” in approaching Ferrell and “negligently failed to realize that, because of the dim lighting in the area, Jonathan would be startled, frightened and unable to see his approach and commands”.
The trial began with the dashcam video of Ferrell’s deadly confrontation with Kerrick taken from another patrol vehicle.
On Friday, jurors saw the first portion of Kerrick’s interview with homicide detectives – hours after the shooting. A paramedic who examined Kerrick said he had a swollen jaw, a cut inside his cheek, and blood on his lips. Laughrun contended prosecutors weren’t providing the complete answers Kerrick gave to the investigators. He said the last update they had was that the suspect was in the front yard.
The judge overruled the objection.
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Kerrick says he pulled his gun, then he watched as Little fired his Taser.
