No Retrial Announced After Mistrial Declared In North Carolina Officer Shooting Case

A week after a judge declared a mistrial in the case of Randall Kerrick, a white police officer who was on trial for the 2013 killing of a black, unarmed former college football player in North Carolina, the state attorney general’s office announced Friday he would not be retried. Last week, a jury was deadlocked 8-4 in the case of Kerrick, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer who was charged with the voluntary manslaughter of Jonathan Ferrell, a 24-year-old former Florida A&M football player, the Greensboro News & Record reported.

The mistrial came amid a national debate over police brutality, police accountability and race relations. State prosecutors made their decision not to seek a second trial after talking with the jurors.

"In consideration of the jurors' comments, the evidence available to the state and our background in criminal trials, it is our prosecutors' unanimous belief a retrial will not yield a different result," Senior Deputy Attorney General Robert Montgomery told a North Carolina district attorney, according to the News & Record.

After being involved in a severe car accident on Sept. 14, 2013, Ferrell knocked on the door of a house he walked to near the crash. The female owner of the home called police.

Several officers responded, and a dashcam video revealed Ferrell approached the police officers before attempting to run around them when he saw a Taser pointed at him, prosecutors argued. Kerrick shot at Ferrell 12 times, hitting him 10 times. Ferrell’s family was awarded $2.25 million in a settlement, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Protests followed the announcement of the mistrial on Aug. 21. Protests grew aggressive the night after the announcement was made, and about 45 people showed up at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department to protest the day after the mistrial was declared.