Sept. 17, 2013
Shooting of a Another Unarmed Black Man Raises Ire in Charlotte
Jonathan Ferrell, 24, was shot 10 times by police Saturday morning while looking for help after a car crash.
(TriceEdneyWire.com) — Yet another police killing of an unarmed Black man has sparked outrage in Charlotte, N.C. This time, a former college foot ball player, 24, was shot 10 times by a police officer while he sought help following a car accident.
According to widespread reports, Jonathan Ferrell was shot Saturday, Sept. 14, by a White Charlotte police Officer Randall Kerrick. Kerrick was arrested and was arraigned Tuesday on volunteer manslaughter charges.
Reports say Kerrick fired his weapon 12 times as Ferrell ran toward him, apparently seeking help after involvement in a car accident nearby. Ferrell had reportedly stopped at the home of woman, who’d opened the door around 2:30 a.m. thinking he was her husband; then called 911 when she saw he was a stranger.
The scourge of police and law enforcement violence against unarmed Black males has been a consistent problem in America. Civil rights leaders have pushed for greater citizen oversight of police among remedies that have been tried in some cities across the country.
Ferrell was a former football player for Florida A&M University. He reportedly moved to Charlotte last year to be with his fiancée.
"Any day in this country, an African-American man can be killed for no reason by the people who are supposed to be protecting him," Kojo Nantambu, president of the Charlotte chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said at a press conference Monday, according to the Associated Press. "That's not an anomaly in this country. They're never given the benefit of the doubt, and that has to change.”