Wilson declined to reveal details of what went on in the jury room during its three days of deliberations. He said the prosecution presented a case that should have stood, but the defense put Jonathan Ferrell on trial for not knowing what to do to avoid beating beaten or shot to death.
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From the incident in 2013, Officer Kerrick shot Ferrell 12 times after Ferrell had been in a severe auto accident, knocked on a woman’s home for help – one Sara McCartney – who not only turned down helping him but called the police and claimed someone was trying to break in. But true to form, Kendrick says he fired because Ferrell was trying to take his gun.
Kerrick’s attorneys sought to demonize Ferrell, said Wilson – pointing out he’d had a few beers, smoked some marijuana before crashing his auto the night of the shooting and noting that he wasn’t able to stay in college.
“We’re going to have officers, lots and lots of officers, as always” he said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Randall Kerrick had faced up to 11 years in prison.
Ervin brought the racially diverse jury back into the Mecklenburg County courtroom around 4:10 p.m. and the foreman said he saw no possibility of reaching a verdict. The protests started with peaceful marching, but tensions later escalated, according to reports.
They get in the street and throw rocks because they know everything else has been taken from them. Dashboard cam footage shows Ferrell approaching the police before being tasered and shot with live ammunition.
Jurors made no comments to reporters as they left.
Throughout the trial, the Ferrell family called for peace from their supporters, a request they reinforced after Friday’s proceedings.
Hours later on Friday night, dozens of demonstrators gathered in Charlotte to protest near the city’s minor league baseball stadium as a game was in progress.
Ferrell was killed a little less than a year before an unarmed black man in New York and an unarmed 18-year-old black male in Ferguson, Missouri, died after separate violent encounters with police cases that cast the nation’s attention on police treatment of minorities.
But Raffe said he was swayed by testimony that Kerrick had been instructed earlier by a supervisor that if one officer draws a Taser, a backup officer should pull his gun. He said nonlethal force should have been used to subdue Ferrell.
Putney stated group leaders are giving him suggestions on the division’s use of drive coverage.
He said he believed Ferrell had other options rather than moving toward the officers, like sitting down or running another way.
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Wilson contends that Kerrick isn’t racist, but that he just “lost it”.
