Another One Down - Nasya King

So apparently a 27 year old police officer shot and killed an ex-football player from FamU. The story is that Jonathan Farrell had just survived a crazy car wreck at 2:30 a.m. and went to search for help himself. He went to the house of a woman who opened the door thinking it was her husband. She had her one year old son in the house with her. Upon seeing Farrell banging on her door she called the police. All the while Farrell is trying to explain that he is hurt and just wants help. She slams the door shut and turns on her alarm. Farrell never makes any threats or displays any destructive behavior. The woman frantically tells the police how stupid she is, she thought it was her husband, her husband has a gun and she can't find it, etc. Farrell walks down the street to continue looking for help. Kerrick (the officer who killed Farrell) and two others arrived. Instead of going to the woman's house, he hunts down Farrell. Farrell still has not displayed any dangerous behavior, however I\ don't believe anyone knew he was hurt. Kerrick finds him and "Defendant Kerrick, in direct violation of written police department regulations, fires 12 high-velocity bullets at Jonathon, striking him 10 times in the chest and arms." The police department has already said that the officer's actions were against the law. They also took place after the suspect was already tazed, because he was not subdued at that point. Farrell did advance toward Kerrick, but he was unarmed. The case went to court and the jury did not indict Kerrick asking for a lesser charge. Farrelll's family lawyers declined and a new case was filed for saying they wanted a full panel of jurors. The defense says this is completely outrages, that the trial was fair in every aspect, but the Attorney General disagreed. Farrells\'s mother says she prays for Kerrick, but wants justice served so this will never happen again. \

This case sounds all too familiar to so many cases that have been "popping up" lately. This officer, regardless of whether he felt like he was in danger at the time of the shooting, took no action to ensure he would not be in any danger upon encountering the Farrell before hand. He never talked to the woman, did not follow the lead of the other two cops (wherever they were), and did not even question or give Farrell a chance to speak. I can undertand not wanting to die, and being a police officer you never know what might happen. However, this officer's actions were extremely excessive and inexcusable. I hope they convict him of voluntary manslaughter. He shot at Farrell twelve times, intending to wound and kill him with every shot seeing as though ten of them actually hit. None seemed to be warning shots or whatever. I am outraged that a jury would not convict him the first time. This is a sad example of the failing system that is what we call justice in America. I wonder how this officer would feel if he was in a car wreck and was not harming anyone, just trying to get help and was consequently shot ten times without any hesitation or chance to speak on his own behalf. And we are not even going to pretend like Farrell being a huge black ex-football player had nothing to do with this. There is a stigma in America that big black men are dangerous, and this only adds another thing black men (and even women) have to worry about in their daily lives. How would you feel if everyday you walked out of the door you had to have the subconscious or conscious question always ringing in your ear "I am innocent, but am I safe?"
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/27/us/north-carolina-police-shooting/index.html?hpt=us_c1