Jonathan Ferrell was shot to death by North Carolina police in September
Press TV – October 23, 2013
The lawyer for the family of an unarmed African-American man who was fatally shot by a white North Carolina police officer says the police’s refusal to release the video of the shooting has raised questions.
“We want the facts out in the public domain. Not part of them, all of them,” said Chris Chestnut, the lawyer representing Jonathan Ferrell’s family.
24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell was killed in September after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Randal Kerrick fired ten shots at him.
Police officers were responding to a 911 call and they arrived at a woman’s home where Ferrell had apparently gone to seek help.
Ferrell had wrecked his car about half a mile away from the house and had likely knocked on the woman’s door looking for help.
An audiotape of the 911 call released by the police shows the woman had thought Ferrell was trying to break in.
After the police arrived on the scene, unarmed Ferrell ran toward them and the officers, who say they could not stop him with a Taser, shot him ten times.
Chestnut, who has seen the video of the shooting recorded by the police car’s dashboard camera, says the footage could suggest that Ferrell did not act aggressively toward the police.
“You can’t just release the facts that are favorable perhaps to the officer but not to Mr. Ferrell,” Chestnut said. “We’re beginning to get concerned about the integrity and the efficiency and, quite frankly, the speed of this investigation.”