Jonathan Ferrell, 24, died on September 14, 2013 after an encounter with police in the Bradfield Farms neighborhood in east Mecklenburg.
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Ferrell, a former Florida A&M football player, had wrecked his auto and gone looking for help in a subdivision outside Charlotte. The lawyers say he approached another officer shouting: “Shoot me”. Ferrell’s DNA was discovered on the officer’s gun and beneath his fingernails, Greene said.
Ferrell fell on Kerrick after he was shot four times, not because he was attacking the officer, Harris said.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, who polices the police when they do wrong? You. He answered, “You do”.
Prosecutor Adren Harris told the court Monday that when an officer pointed a taser at Ferrell, he feared for his life and ran between police cars, where Kerrick was standing with gun drawn.
“Neither officer on the scene, while Jon is lying face down in a pool of blood, attempts to render any first aid”, Harris said.
The state’s first witnesses supported two images of Jonathan Ferrell.
Mr Ferrel had recently moved to Charlotte to start a life with his fiance, and was employed at Best Buy and Dillard’s. A woman inside, alone with her 1-year-old son, called police, reporting a home invasion. This was after she says he banged on her door. She said he looked raging. But in opening statements at the officer’s trial for voluntary manslaughter, Kerrick’s defense attorney said Jonathan Ferrell – who was shot dead after knocking on doors for help after a auto accident – made several bad choices that night, including drinking and smoking marijuana before the crash, screaming at a passer-by and acting aggressively towards officers. “Turn off the alarm!'” said Greene, the defense attorney. The jury heard the whole 911 call, including the part when police arrived, and read along with a transcript of the call.
Kerrick’s attorneys contend he acted in self-defense.
“Sitting in there in my garage, I’d inhale it a couple of times, give it to him”.
“We actually did it together twice”.
MCCARTNEY: There’s a guy breaking in my front door. Kerrick fired twelve bullets, and ten of them struck Ferrell. She left for work, didn’t respond to two of his texts and never saw him alive again.
“I probably would have said yes”.
He said Heidel was at home but didn’t take part.
The defense wanted to show Ferrell was aggressive, but his fiance stated otherwise.
In the Charlotte case, investigators said 24-year-old Ferrell was killed after getting out of his wrecked vehicle in a co-worker’s neighborhood.
Ferrell’s friends from work took the stand after his fiance and explained the night before he died they all went to Hickory Tavern for some drinks.
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Kerrick’s future depends on which version the 12 jurors – seven whites, three blacks and two Latinos – choose.
