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A white policeman in Nashville, who shot dead a black man who was fleeing him, was charged with criminal homicide on Thursday, officials said.
In a July 26 shooting video, which prosecutors released last month, Constable Andrew Delke of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department chases Daniel Hambrick and fires him from behind.
Mr. Hambrick, 25, was holding a firearm at the time of the shooting and was told to drop it, according to an affidavit signed on Thursday.
The affidavit, filed by an investigator from the prosecutor's office, said Constable Delke, 25, had tried unsuccessfully to stop a white Chevrolet Impala earlier in the day, then Impala. Several people were in the area, the affidavit said, and when the officer arrived, Mr. Hambrick ran and Officer Delke pursued him, although he did not know if the man was connected. to one or the other vehicle.
Officer Delke fired four times on Mr. Hambrick, hit him three times, said the sworn statement – once in the back of the head, once in the back and a times in the left torso. The doctors responded, but Hambrick died shortly after the shooting, the authorities said.
In a telephone interview, David L. Raybin, one of Delke's lawyers, stated that reserve officers were summoned to the scene on the day of the murder and that, although Mr. Hambrick was fleeing the agents arriving – with a weapon.
"Tennessee law allows a police officer to use deadly force when there is a danger to others," he said. "Agent Delke was protecting himself, protecting his reserve officers and the public."
Mr. Raybin and a spokesman for the Nashville-Davidson County Attorney stated that they could not remember any other case in which a Nashville police officer had been charged with such a crime for an act committed during his service.
Mr. Raybin stated that his client had been "disarmed" which means that he currently has no law enforcement function but is still a police officer and still earns his salary. He said that Agent Delke would ultimately plead not guilty. Its next date of hearing, a preliminary hearing, is scheduled for October 30th.
Spokesman, Steve Hayslip, said that a commissioner had refused to sign the affidavit on criminal homicides when prosecutors introduced him for the first time on Thursday morning. Prosecutors then brought it before a judge who signed it.
Agent Delke made it quickly and was released after paying a $ 25,000 bail, Raybin said.
"The decision to prosecute by warrant rather than bringing the case directly to a grand jury allows this case to be presented in open court in the most transparent manner possible," said Attorney Glenn R Funk in a statement. . "As it is an ongoing criminal case, I will not have any other out-of-court comments."
The shooting sparked protests and civic actions. A few days after the release of the video of the filming, Black Lives Matter Nashville activists and other organizations paraded in the city. A coalition including the National Association for the Promotion of People of Color has also proposed the creation of a civilian council to investigate allegations of police misconduct; the proposal will be voted in November despite police efforts to kill the measure.
Chief Constable Steve Anderson of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department described Mr. Hambrick's death as a "tragedy," while noting that Officer Delke's family and police department were affected by the firing and his reverberations. As other law enforcement agencies are dealing with the investigation, the department's administrative investigation "is open but outstanding," he said. Agent Delke, he added, was working in an office, but was disarmed because of the criminal charge, which he said complied with the protocol.
"In simple terms, we need to have laws enforced in a fair, equitable and transparent way," he said.
The affidavit signed Thursday offered new details on the alleged sequence of events on the day of filming. He stated that Agent Delke was patrolling North Nashville when he became suspicious about the Chevrolet Impala, apparently because he had stopped at one stop and had conceded to him the right of way. He started following the Impala, and even after using the license plate and learned that he had not been stolen, he "continued to follow to see if he had not been stolen." he could develop a reason to stop the Impala, "said the statement.
The officer finally turned on his blue lights while the Impala had parked on the highway, but the vehicle did not stop, and the officer lost track of the affidavit.
Yet, agent Delke was still looking for the Impala and ended up parking in a parking lot where he was entrusting another white sedan to Impala. He stopped next to the sedan and stopped, and Mr. Hambrick ran off, the affidavit said. Agent Delke ran after him, the affidavit added that Officer Delke did not know the identity of the man and that he "did not know for sure" if the man had been in the Impala or the white sedan.
Andrew R Chow contributed to the report. Doris Burke contributed to the research.
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