Ohio Grand Jury Clears Officer of Killing Man Holding Air Rifle in Wal-Mart
Actions found justified
An Ohio grand jury found officers' actions were justified in last month's fatal shooting of a man holding an air rifle at a Wal-Mart store, a special prosecutor said Wednesday.
Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said the Greene County grand jury in Xenia opted not to issue any indictments in the Aug. 5 death of 22-year-old John Crawford III.
A 911 caller reported Crawford was waving what appeared to be a rifle in the store. Police said he didn't obey commands to put down what turned out to be an air rifle. Crawford's family said he had taken it off a store shelf.
Crawford's family says they believe the shooting was not justified and wants federal authorities to investigate whether race was a factor. Crawford was black, the officers are white.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Let the riots begin!
This is my shocked face.