- A police officer who shot an 11-year-old in the Mississippi Delta will face no charges.
- State attorney Lynn Fitch said in a statement Thursday that a grand jury found no criminal conduct.
- Police were responding to the house after the boy’s mother called for help.
A Mississippi police officer who shot an 11-year-old in the chest in May will not face any charges for the shooting.
Indianola Police Department Sgt. Greg Capers shot Aderrien Murry in May after the boy’s mother, Nakala Murry, called police for help during a domestic disturbance, according to USA Today. The shooting left Aderrien with a collapsed lung, lacerated liver, and fractured ribs, according to the outlet.
In a statement released on Thursday, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said her office had completed its review of the case and presented it to a grand jury. Fitch said that the grand jury found no criminal conduct on behalf of the officers and that her office would take no “further criminal action” in the case.
The Murry family’s attorney, Carlos Moore, previously told Business Insider that one officer had ordered everyone inside the Murry’s home to “come out with your hands up,” but when Aderrien complied, the officer opened fire, Moore said.
Moore said Aderrien remembers the entire incident, and began receiving counseling following the shooting to help him cope with the trauma. Still, he reassured his own mother that she did nothing wrong.
“He told his mom not to worry. It was not her fault,” Moore told Business Insider. “She was blaming herself, and he’s trying to encourage her not to blame herself. He told us, ‘It’s the cop’s fault — it’s not your fault.’ He was doing all he could to help protect his mom, and he ends up getting shot.”
Nakala Murry told USA Today that she told her son about the grand jury’s decision when he came home from school on Thursday, worrying that “it would make him feel like they didn’t care.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Nakala Murry called for police to release the body camera footage of the shooting, according to Mississippi Today.
“Watching that footage was nothing I was prepared for emotionally, but it was something I had to do,” she said. “I feel disgusted, outraged and emotionally damaged, but in all of those feelings I feel blessed. This has been a process of fighting for justice for my son.”
Michael Carr, an attorney for Capers, told Business Insider in a statement that Capers was “relieved” at the grand jury’s decision and is “looking forward to closing this chapter.”
“While a tragic situation, this was not a criminal act. Thankfully the City of Indianola equipped Sgt. Capers with body camera technology, and this made clear exactly what happened,” the statement said. “The members of the grand jury, applying the facts to the law, reached the right result.”
