OH judge declares mistrial for officer who shot Samuel DuBose
- by Jimmy Nichols
- in USA
- — Jun 27, 2017
In the chaotic next moments, Mr DuBose appears to reach for the ignition of his vehicle, and the officer reaches in to stop him. "This is the most asinine act I have ever seen a police officer make", he said at the time.
Regardless of the reason, the outcome was the same for Samuel DuBose, Sylville Smith and Philando Castile - none of them survived. In May, Tulsa police Officer Betty Shelby was acquitted in the shooting death of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man. It was also the second deadlocked jury to consider this particular shooting. The trial ended without a verdict.
The lack of convictions has riled advocates and victims' families who say the system is stacked in favor of law enforcement and disregards black lives.
After five days of deliberations, the jury said Friday afternoon it was deadlocked and Hamilton County Judge Leslie Ghiz declared a mistrial in the murder and voluntary manslaughter trial.
Tensing is the third officer in the past week to beat a case stemming from their on-duty shooting of a black man.
Announcing the charge against Tensing during a news conference 10 days later, Deters said that his office had reviewed more than 100 police shootings and "this is the first time that we've thought, 'This is without question a murder'". Tensing pulled his weapon and fired to avoid, he said, being dragged under DuBose's vehicle.
The 27-year-old Tensing testified he feared he was going to be killed. But DuBose held it shut.
Tensing stared straight ahead with no expression before putting his head down in his hand.
"Shot fired! Shot fired!" someone yelled moments later.
As we have reported, Tensing's bullet hit DuBose in the head, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His auto rolled for about a block before crashing. His legal team argued that his arm appears to be inside DuBose's auto as DuBose starts to drive away.
"We are nearly evenly split regarding our votes", the jurors wrote to the judge.
Raymond Tensing, a police officer indicted on Wednesday, July 29, 2015 for the fatal shooting of an apparently unarmed black man after a confrontation during a traffic stop Sunday, July 19, 2015.
Heaggan-Brown was cleared of first-degree reckless homicide.
"I submit to you that is a threat to his life and to his well-being", Mathews said, according to CNN. An expert hired by prosecutors said his frame-by-frame analysis of the former officer's body camera video showed the officer was not being dragged by the auto.
He ran near a chain-link fence between two houses.
Local station WLWT reports that the jury deliberated for 31 hours but could not reach a consensus. An expert hired by prosecutors said his frame-by-frame analysis of the former officer's body camera video showed the officer was not being dragged by the vehicle.
Like the cases in Wisconsin and Minnesota that recently ended with acquittals, DuBose's death was captured on video.
