Prosecutors have decided not to press charges against two police officers who shot Ezell Ford in August 2014, adding to the litany of police officers in the United States who have managed to walk free after killing unarmed Black people.
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The verdict was made on the basis that officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas were acting in self-defense when they shot Ford three times.
The finding comes more than a year after a police oversight board found the officers were in the wrong to stop Ford, violating department policy.
Ford had been stopped by authorities one summer evening when he was spotted in a known gang area. Ford began to walk away just as the officers continued to get closer, thinking he had an illegal substance.
A scuffle between Ford and the cops ensued, and that’s when Wampler shot Ford in the back. Prosecutors said Villegas also fired two shots at Ford.
“Although the loss of Mr. Ford’s life is tragic, we believe the officers’ actions were legally justified and the evidence supports our decision,” Los Angeles district attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement.
“Two officers were exonerated today in the shooting death of Ezell Earl Ford,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said after the announcement, as reported by The Guardian. “As a father, and as a mayor who has grieved with too many Angelenos crushed by the unthinkable loss of a child, I know that due process will not soothe the anguish still being felt by Mr. Ford’s loved ones.”
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The mayor has accepted the district attorney’s decision and has also pledged to advance community policing and de-escalation training.
Tritobia Ford, Ezell’s mother, told reporters Tuesday she could not understand the decision concerning her son. She said “there will be no justice,” and that her son, who had a history of mental illness, “was murdered” by the officers.
At the time of Ford’s shooting, a number of Black Lives Matters protests sprung up in Los Angeles.The case of Ezell Ford is one of the many Black victims of police brutality in the U.S. in recent years, along with Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and Eric Garner.