By Scotty Reid
Just last week it was reported that Randall Kerrick, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer who gunned down an unarmed Jonathan Ferrell with extreme prejudice, was not indicted by a Mecklenburg County grand jury that felt the charge of voluntary manslaughter was extreme. Today, another grand jury reconsidered those charges and issued an indictment on the original charge.
Kerrick’s attorneys had sought to block the case from being re-submitted stating that “this ball game” needs to end and should have ended last week when the North Carolina Attorney General failed to re-submit the case to the same grand jury that had failed to issue an indictment on voluntary manslaughter charges. The Mecklenburg county judge did not agree and allowed the case to be submitted to the new grand jury.
On the night of September 14, 2013 Jonathan Ferrell wrecked his car, which ended up in a gully. After climbing out of the car, Ferrell sought help by knocking on the door of a nearby home. After opening the door, expecting it to be her husband and seeing Ferrell instead, the woman got hysterical, slammed the door shut and proceeded to call 911. Ferrell can be heard 90 seconds into the call asking for help and saying “Hello” as the woman proceeded to give a false report to the 911 dispatcher that a man was trying to break into her home and was trying to kick down the door. Ferrell would make his way back to where his vehicle was wrecked when encountering two police officers who had pulled their tasers and pointed them at Ferrell. Officer Randall Kerrick, the third officer on the scene ran towards where Ferrell and the two other cops were standing and when Ferrell turn towards him, Kerrick fired his weapon 12 times hitting the unarmed man 10 times in the chest. Ferrell would die on the scene.
The family of Jonathan Ferrell issued the following statement upon hearing that Officer Kerrick had been indicted for the killing.
“We are grateful that the Grand Jury has carefully considered the evidence against Randall Kerrick and returned an indictment for the crime of voluntary manslaughter. Shooting an unarmed man 10 times can never be justified under these circumstances,” the Ferrell family said in a statement on Monday.
“We thank Attorney General Roy Cooper and his staff for their professionalism and their efforts in securing an indictment that appropriately reflects the seriousness of this crime.”
“We will persevere in our quest for justice for not just Jonathan, but all law abiding citizens. After all, what happened to him that night could happen to any of us.”
The attorneys for Kerrick are trying to get a gag order in place and prevent the media from relaying information on the case to the public but the judge refused to issue one at this time.
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Its always good to see a cop not get away with murder like they normally do its a good day.maybe some of these cops will start thinking twice before killing somebody in cold blood.
Thank you for the update.