For a review of the basic facts of the case and links to prior reports, scroll to the bottom.
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He said Ferrell knocked him back into a drainage ditch and reached for his gun. “No matter what I did, he wouldn’t stop”, Randall Kerrick stated. “I can rewind it. Do you want me to rewind it again?”
Little reiterated what he saw after Ferrell started running. But a defense witness testified Wednesday that lethal force should be a last resort when a suspect doesn’t have a weapon visible to officers.
Three officers were called to the 7500 block of Reedy Creek Road in east Mecklenburg County around 2:30 that morning.
Randall Kerrick testifying he thought he was going to die.
He was the first officer to see Ferrell and he said Ferrell was acting erratically, pacing and slapping his hands on his thighs. He said Ferrell yelled twice at the cops to shoot him.
Little says he gave Ferrell the command to stop, but that wasn’t heard on the dashcam video, either. Little said he fired his Taser but later learned it didn’t connect.
Kerrick testified that he feared Ferrell might harm him and Little.
“Kerrick was backpedaling away from the subject”, Little said.
Kerrick said he thought he fired four to six times, but said he now knows it was 12 times.
During cross-examination by prosecutor Adren Harris, Little was shown the dashcam video of the incident. Officers say Ferrell was unarmed.
Kerrick fought to maintain his composure Thursday when he was asked about what happened on the night he shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell.
Much of his testimony focused on his police academy training and the commendations he’s received. Kerrick testified about a conversation he said he had with a sergeant a few years ago. He has been on unpaid suspension since the shooting.
Officer Randall Kerrick’s voice cracked Thursday as he began testifying in his voluntary manslaughter trial. The homeowner, afraid someone was trying to break in, called 911.
Randall “Wes” Kerrick is accused of shooting and killing unarmed Jonathan Ferrell on September 14, 2013.
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Ferrell, a former football player at Florida A&M University, was living in Charlotte with his fiancée. He was working at both Best Buy and Dillard’s at the time of his death.
