Police in North Carolina are making plans for multiple activities as they keep an eye on protests following the mistrial declared in the case of a white police officer accused in the shooting death of an unarmed black man.
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Superior court judge Robert C Ervin declared the mistrial on Friday afternoon when the 12 jurors – seven white, three black and two Latino – reached an impasse, an 8-4 deadlock, after four days of deliberation. He credited the jury foreman for keeping arguments among the jurors from becoming too heated.
Soon after the mistrial was announced, a small group of protesters blocked traffic outside the Mecklenburg County courthouse. They held signs with the hash tag of Justice for Jonathan and shouted “No justice no peace”. They later dispersed.
The protesters had gathered near the city’s minor league baseball stadium as a game was in progress. There, police officers were seen on video grasping batons and stopping protesters from entering the covered center.
For more than two hours after darkness fell, the protestors – mainly young African American males – marched through the streets of uptown Charlotte shouting at police and passers by. At the press conference Putney said protesters grew “more aggressive” over the course of Friday evening. At the urging of protesters, some motorists honked auto horns in support.
By nightfall, police responded to mass demonstrators in full riot gear.
An upstate New York man was convicted Friday of plotting to kill Muslims with a mobile X-ray device by a jury that rejected his lawyer’s argument that he was entrapped by the FBI.
Jurors made no comments to reporters as they left.
Kerrick, 29, was charged with using excessive force during a September 2013 encounter with Jonathan Ferrell, 24, a former Florida A&M football player who had wrecked his auto on a dark road and was seeking help when he encountered officers.
As we noted in our pre-verdict analysis, Officer Kerrick’s decision to fire was reasonable under the circumstances. CATS says normal operations will resume Saturday morning. The resident called police, and three officers responded.
“What did Jonathan Ferrell do to warrant death – 10 shots?”
The officer who fired his Taser at Ferrell as he charged Kerrick, Thornell Little, was of the opinion that Kerrick was justified. CMPD captain Mike Campagna testified that he was not.
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Officer Adam Neal, who was also at the shooting scene, testified that he never considered pulling a weapon that night and instead viewed the situation as one that would require physical force. The city of Charlotte reached a .25 million legal settlement with Ferrell’s family earlier this year.
