A judge in North Carolina on declared a mistrial in a police officer’s 2013 killing of Jonathan Ferrell, who was unarmed at the time.
The voluntary manslaughter charge against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Randall “Wes” Kerrick remains open.
Kerrick, 29, shot Ferrell, a 24 year-old former FAMU defensive back, in a confrontation following a traffic accident, according to NBC.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated over four days, taking several votes but never coming close to a unanimous decision on Kerrick’s fate. In its last vote on Friday afternoon, the jury was split, 8-4.
The shooting unfolded on Sept. 14, 2013, after Ferrell, who’d once played defensive back for Florida A&M University, crawled from a wrecked car and staggered to a nearby house for help. A woman inside called 911 to report a possible break-in. Kerrick and two other officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department responded to the scene.
Kerrick’s jury was racially diverse: seven white members, three blacks and two Latinos.
By Glenn Erby
