slate | A grand jury in Ohio has chosen not to indict two police officers
in the shooting of John Crawford, the Dayton-area man who was killed in
a Walmart while carrying what turned out to be a BB gun. Crawford was
shot on August 5, and a special grand jury was convened for the case on
Monday.
Prosecutors have released security footage of Crawford's movements
around the store (click the link above to see it) and of the moment he
was shot:
Though a 911 caller told a dispatcher that Crawford was "pointing"
the gun at other shoppers and later said Crawford was "waving it
around," the video does not appear to show either such movement. That
caller, Ronald Ritchie, told reporters he was an "ex-Marine"—but was
found to have been kicked out of the Corps after only seven weeks on a
charge of "fraudulent enlistment."
Officers say Crawford ignored orders to drop the BB gun. A
representative of Crawford's family says that Crawford may not even have
been aware of officers' presence before they began firing.
