“The case will remain open per further proceedings,” Judge Richard Ervin said to end the trial. Police, including officer Kerrick, responded to a report of a breaking-and-entering in progress. The crash was so severe, Ferrell family attorney Chris Chestnut has said, that the ex-Florida A&M football player had to crawl out the back window of the auto. Kerrick faces voluntary manslaughter char…
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Protesters and police clashed Friday night in Charlotte after a mistrial was declared in the Randall Kerrick fatal police shooting case.
Davie Hinshaw/AP Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin, seen Friday, declared the trial a mistrial after the Charlotte jury repeatedly deadlocked 8-4.
“Honestly, we have exhausted every possibility”, the foreman said after four days of deliberations where the jurors could not come to an agreement.
The foreman told the judge the vote was still the same as the last two votes, 8-4.
Defense attorney George Laughrun called for the mistrial because jurors were at an impasse after deliberating for 19 hours. Judge Ervin asked for a show of hands of how many jurors agreed with the foreman. They later dispersed.
Eight protesters were sprawled in the middle of the street Friday afternoon. At the urging of protesters, some motorists honked auto horns in support.
According to NBC affiliate WCNC, a protester struck an officer at the Transit Center uptown, a scuffle ensued, and the man was arrested. Jonathan was an innocent bystander, looking for help and killed.
It is not yet known whether prosecutors will seek to try the case again. They were not in the courtroom for the mistrial ruling.
Jurors were in a sound proof room with only the essentials, like their notebooks and a writing board.
Friday is the fourth day that the jury has gone over the evidence in the trial of Officer Randall Kerrick, who is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the September 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell. Officers say Ferrell was unarmed.
Georgia Farrell is the dead man’s mother. They say Ferrell chose to bang on a door and yell at the 911 caller, and he chose to charge at police officers. The resident inside the home called police, and three officers responded.
Police dashcam footage shows him running toward officers before shots can be heard off camera.
“I didn’t have any idea if the suspect had a weapon on him”.
A unanimous decision was required to convict Kerrick.
Police Captain Mike Campagna testified during the trial that the officer had broken their policy and that nonlethal means should have been used to subdue Ferrell.
Mr Ferrell, a former college football player, was pronounced dead at the scene. They said he did not approach the officers in an aggressive manner, and even if Kerrick felt threatened, he should have used his Taser or fought him off.
Defense attorneys targeted Ferrell’s condition at the time of the shooting, pointing to the fact that he had smoked marijuana and drank alcohol before the wreck that led to the deadly confrontation. The suit was settled in May 2015 for $2.25 million.
The case is one of several in the United States in which a white police officer has been accused of unjustly shooting an unarmed black man, sparking a national debate on the issue and calls for police reforms. Protests and rioting followed Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson and a grand jury’s refusal to indict the officer.
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“There are all kinds of things that officers are trained to do short of deadly force”, Holmes said.
