police shooting

A civil lawsuit against CMPD officer Randall Kerrick is on hold for sixty days while his criminal trial proceeds. U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen made that decision Tuesday in response to a request by the city of Charlotte. The civil suit was filed by the family of 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell who was fatally shot ten times by Kerrick in September. Ferrell was unarmed. 

A Mecklenburg County grand jury Monday afternoon issued an indictment of voluntary manslaughter against CMPD officer Randall Kerrick for shooting an unarmed black man 10 times.

Earlier in the day, Kerrick's attorneys tried to block prosecutors from resubmitting the case to a new grand jury after a separate grand jury refused to indict Kerrick on a voluntary manslaughter charge last week.  A judge denied the motion.

The attorneys for accused Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall Kerrick have asked a judge to block prosecutors from taking Kerrick’s voluntary manslaughter case before a second grand jury on Monday.

Earlier this week, a panel of grand jurors declined to indict Kerrick in connection with the Sept. 14 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, who was hit by 10 bullets from the officer’s gun. Ferrell was unarmed.

In rejecting the voluntary manslaughter charge, the jurors asked prosecutors to bring back a lesser charge for them to consider.

In this second episode of our new podcast, WFAE Talks, News Director Greg Collard and reporters Lisa Miller and Ben Bradford discuss a grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer accused of shooting an unarmed man 10 times, the controversy over school redistricting in Union County and the future of commercial drones flying over our communities.

New online health insurance markets will open this week, as federal health care reforms begin to take effect.  Under the law, most people for the first time will be required to buy their own coverage if it's not provided by their employers.  But there’s lots of confusion here in the Carolinas thanks to the reluctance of Republican-controlled lawmakers to play along.