A police officer in North Carolina has been charged with voluntary manslaughter Saturday, September 14, after shooting and killing an unarmed man, who was later revealed to have just survived a car crash and was seeking help.
Jonathan Ferrell, 24, was a football player, and former member of the Florida A&M University football team, died on the scene early Saturday morning due to multiple gunshot wounds.
The offending police officer, 27-year-old Randall Kerrick turned himself in, but was released on a $50,000 bond.
The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department had released a statement saying that their investigation concluded that Kerrick had "no lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter."
Further investigation also entail that the victim, Ferrell, had crashed his car into the woods, later climbing out and walking half a mile to the nearest house to look for help. He reportedly "began banging on the door viciously," Police Chief Rodney Monroe related, adding that the victim may have been urgently looking for help.
However, the woman who came to the door thought that Ferrell was trying to break into her house to rob her, and immediately called the police. Three officers, including Kerrick, responded to the call and immediately had Ferrell surrounded. Ferrell was then said to have charged at them, even after being "unsuccessfully" subdued by a taser. It was then that Kerrick started shooting.
Initial statements from the CMPD justify Kerrick's actions, only to have a subsequent investigation turn around and say that he had violated "laws regarding voluntary manslaughter." Voluntary manslaughter is defined in North Carolina as "killing without malice while using excessive force in exercising imperfect self-defense."
The investigation has also said that there had been no evidence that Ferrell had been threatening the woman on whose door he reportedly "tried to break in to." He was also not under the influence of alcohol, crossing out Alcohol as factor in the car crash. Two of the other officers involved in the incident were also temporarily suspended, on "paid administrative leave."
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