State of emergency ends in Ferguson

Ferguson/ReutersSt Louis County yesterday ended the state of emergency it had put in effect earlier this week for Ferguson, Missouri, and surrounding areas due to violent street protests.“After reviewing the events of the past four evenings, under the state of emergency, I am pleased to report our law enforcement officers have established order while preventing further acts of violence in Ferguson,” St Louis County executive Steve Stenger said in a statement.A white North Carolina police officer told jurors in his manslaughter trial on Thursday that he shot and killed an unarmed black man in 2013, because he feared for his life.“No matter what I did, he wouldn’t stop,” Randall Kerrick said. “He was doing everything he could to get to my gun,” he added, teary-eyed and his voice shaking.“I thought I was going to die.”Prosecutors say Kerrick, 29, used unnecessary force when he shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell, 24, outside Charlotte before dawn on September 14, 2013.Kerrick’s defence attorney has told the court the shooting was justified.Ferrell, a former Florida A&M football player who outweighed the officer by roughly 60 pounds, never reached the gun, Kerrick told jurors.From “an arm’s length” away, Kerrick fired at Ferrell 12 times. Ten of the shots hit, according to trial evidence.The shooting was one in a series of police killings of unarmed black men that have drawn attention to issues of race and justice in the United States.Kerrick has been on unpaid leave from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department since the shooting.Ferrell had crashed his car after a night out with friends. Unable to retrieve his cell phone from the wreck, he walked to a nearby house and knocked on the door.The woman who lived there called 911, fearing a home invasion. Kerrick was one of three officers who responded but the only one who pulled his gun.Kerrick testified that when he arrived at the woman’s home, he and another officer, Thornell Little, encountered Ferrell.After Little missed with his Taser, Kerrick said, Ferrell ran toward him, ignoring orders to “Get on the ground!” three times.He said Ferrell knocked him back into a drainage ditch and reached for his gun.“I had absolutely no idea whether he had a weapon on him or not,” Kerrick said.During opening statements in superior court in Charlotte last week, prosecutors described a grisly scene in which Kerrick fired a volley of shots, then another after Ferrell had fallen at his feet, and two more after Ferrell’s body moved a final time.Kerrick’s defence lawyer said Ferrell’s DNA was discovered on the officer’s gun and beneath his fingernails.A toxicology report found no traces of drugs in Ferrell’s system and a blood-alcohol level below the legal limit for driving.l A former Atlanta-area police chief has been sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation for shooting his wife in bed on New Year’s Day in an apparent accident that left her partially paralysed, a prosecutor said Friday.William McCollom, 58, pleaded guilty on Thursday to a misdemeanour count of reckless conduct, according to Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard.McCollom, then the police chief of Peachtree City south of Atlanta, accidentally shot his wife while moving a gun he had taken to bed for security, Ballard said.Although there is no evidence McCollom intentionally tried to hurt his wife, the district attorney sought an indictment against him for reckless conduct because he took a loaded gun to bed after drinking and taking sleep medication, Ballard said.The chief’s wife, Margaret, is “still paralyzed and apparently will be paralyzed for life,” said Ballard, adding that she did not want her husband prosecuted.“He is not a bad man,” said Ballard, calling the case “a tragedy all the way around”.McCollom was sentenced as a first offender, meaning he will have no criminal record if he successfully completes probation and pays a $1,000 fine, the prosecutor said. McCollom, who resigned as chief after the shooting, now lives in Florida, Ballard said.William and Margaret McCollom divorced after the shooting but continue to live together, the prosecutor said.