Lawyer calls for investigation into shooting of Mississippi boy by police officer after 911 call

CNN
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A lawyer for an 11-year-old Mississippi boy who was shot by a police officer after he called 911 for help is calling for a “full and transparent investigation” into the shooting.

Aderrien Murry is recovering after being released from the hospital, according to his family, who have called for the officer to be fired and charged with the shooting. The boy is traumatized and will need counseling, according to the family’s attorney, Carlos Moore.

Aderrien was shot in the chest by an Indianola Police Department officer early Saturday while the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance call at the boy’s home, according to his mother, Nakala Murry, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. .

“No child should be subjected to such violence at the hands of those they are sworn to protect and serve,” Moore said.

“We must demand justice for this young man and his family. We cannot allow another senseless tragedy like this to happen. We must come together as a community to demand change and accountability from our law enforcement officials.”

The circumstances of the shooting are under investigation.

Moore, the boy’s mother and others held a sit-in protest Thursday morning at Indianola City Hall. A march and rally is planned for Saturday to demand the firing of the officer and the release of body camera footage.

“We demand justice,” Moore said outside City Hall on Thursday morning before the sit-in. “An 11-year-old black boy in the city of Indianola nearly lost his life. He had done nothing wrong and everything was fine.

On Thursday, CNN tried to reach the police chief and other officials with the Indianola Police Department, but was told they were not available.

The boy was badly wounded, suffering a collapsed lung, fractured ribs, and a lacerated liver from the shooting. He was released from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson on Wednesday, hospital spokeswoman Annie Oeth said.

“He still has a lot of questions,” Moore said of the boy on Thursday. “He is emotionally distraught. He is glad to be alive.”

Murry said his son is “blessed” to be alive and questions why the police shot him.

Murry told ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​Thursday that arriving officers yelled “Open the door, open the door,” and when she opened it, an officer outside was holding a gun and telling her to get out.

Murry told the show that she got out and walked to the end of a driveway, where her mother was, and then “heard a shot and I saw my son run over to where we were.” Then he fell, bleeding from a gunshot wound, he said.

The shooting officer told him that he had shot Aderrien after he turned a corner, he told the show.

“It’s not possible for a trained and reasonable police officer to misperceive a boy as a man,” Moore told the morning show. “This kid looks like a kid. He is very short, he is very skinny. There is no way they could have mistaken him for a man.”

Murry told CNN that the “angry” father of another of his children came to his house at 4 a.m. Saturday.

Concerned for her safety, Murry asked Aderrien to call the police.

Murry said the officer who arrived at the home “had his gun at the front door and asked those inside the home to come out.” Murry said his son was shot as he turned the corner of a hallway toward the living room.

“Once he got out of the corner, they shot him,” Murry said. “I can’t understand why. The same policeman who told him to get out of the house. (Aderrien) did, and he was shot. He kept asking, ‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do wrong?’” he said.

The shooting occurred in what appeared to be “a minute or two” after the officer asked those in the home to leave, Murry said.

The boy had a chest tube placed and was put on a ventilator at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He had a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver from the shooting, his mother said. He was released from the hospital on Wednesday. CNN has contacted the hospital.

Two other children, including Murry’s daughter and 2-year-old nephew, were also at the home at the time of the shooting, he said.

Moore told CNN the incident was captured on police body camera video.

The lawyer said his request for the body camera footage was denied due to “an ongoing investigation.”

Moore said he was told there is also video of the incident from a nearby gas station.

The Indianola Police Department confirmed that the officer involved in the shooting is named Greg Capers, but did not provide additional details about the shooting and told CNN that the police chief was not available.

CNN reached out to Capers for comment but did not immediately hear back.

On Monday night, the Indianola Board of Aldermen voted to place Capers on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, according to the family’s attorney.

In a statement over the weekend, the MBI said the agency is “currently evaluating this critical incident and gathering evidence” and will turn its findings over to the state attorney general’s office once the investigation is complete.

On Wednesday, MBI spokesperson Bailey Martin declined to answer additional questions, telling CNN in an email: “Because this is an open and ongoing investigation, no further comment will be made.”

CNN has contacted the District Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Circuit Court and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office for comment.

Murry said that after her son was shot, she placed her hand on his wound to apply pressure while he “sang gospel songs and prayed as he bled out.” The officer, he said, tried to help provide first aid and placed her hand over his to try to stop Aderrien’s bleeding.

When an ambulance arrived, doctors were “very attentive,” he said.

“Aderrien almost lost his life,” Moore said. “It is not right for a police officer to do this and get away with it. Her mother asked Aderrien to call the police about the father of her daughter. She left her room following the instructions of the police and they shot her”.

Murry said police told her her daughter’s father was taken into custody later Saturday, but was eventually released because she hadn’t filed a police report against him.

“When was I going to have time to do that? I was in the hospital with my son, ”she said, reacting to the news of the man’s release from custody.

Four days after the shooting, Murry told CNN that “nobody came to the hospital from the police station” or spoke to any police investigators about the shooting.

“I am happy that my son is alive,” she said through tears.

Moore told CNN that he is furious that Capers is still an employee of the Indianola Police Department.

“We believe that the city and the officer should be held accountable to Aderrien Murray for the damage they have caused,” the lawyer said.

Indianola is a small, mostly African-American city with 31% of the population below the poverty line. It is located in the Mississippi Delta, about 100 miles north of Jackson.