Former Florida A&M football player Jonathan Ferrell shot and killed by police over the weekend in North Carolina after seeking assistance following a car accident, local police now admit. Ferrell was unarmed when he was fired upon.
According to USA Today Sports, Jonathan A. Ferrell, 24, played for A&M in 2009-10 and had only recently moved to North Carolina, where there are reports he soon planned to be married. Police have now charged officer Randall Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter in his death, adding the officer "did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter."
The tragic incident unfolded early Saturday morning after Ferrell was involved in a wreck and went to a nearby house begging for help. A woman answered the door and, when she didn't recognize him, called 911.
Responding to a breaking-and-entering call, officers arrived to find Ferrell still in the area where the accident had occurred. When he spotted them, the newspaper reports, Ferrell began to run toward officers and was hit with a Taser. Police claim he continued to run toward them and was then shot several times by Ferrell. He did at the scene.
Police initially classified Kerrick's actions as " appropriate and lawful," but after a public outcry released a statement late Saturday asserting "the investigation showed that the subsequent shooting of Mr. Ferrell was excessive."
Under North Carolina law a charge of voluntary manslaughter involves killing without malice using "excessive force" in exercising "imperfect self-defense," according to U.S.A. Today.
Kerrick, 27, of Midland, N.C., turned himself in for booking Saturday evening and was released on $50,000 bond, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office website. He joined the police force in April 2011.
"Our hearts and prayers go out to his family during their time of bereavement," A&M athletic director Michael Smith said in an emailed statement about Ferrell.
Before Kerrick was charged, police chief Rodney Monroe described the accident in a news conference: Ferrell was driving a vehicle that crashed into trees off a northeast Charlotte road early Saturday, and the wreck was so severe he would have had to climb out of the back window to escape. Monroe said he didn't know what caused the crash and didn't say whether Ferrell suffered injuries.
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