A Mississippi cop who shot a Black 15-year-old in the head won’t face criminal charges

Gulfport Police Division

4 months after a Mississippi police officer shot a Black 15-year-old, Jaheim McMillan, within the head exterior a Household Greenback retailer, the state’s Division of Public Security has launched video footage of the encounter, following the state legal professional common’s announcement Wednesday {that a} grand jury discovered no proof of legal wrongdoing by legislation enforcement.

The capturing of McMillan in Gulfport on October 6 sparked months of protest, after some witnesses exterior the shop mentioned he was unarmed and had his fingers up, and that he lay on the sidewalk for minutes with out medical care as blood poured from his head. The officer who shot McMillan, Kenneth Nassar, who’s white, mentioned the teenager turned towards him with a gun.

The video footage, together with dash-cam footage, was launched Wednesday to native journalists. It reveals McMillan and one other teen fleeing a parked automotive in entrance of the shop after a police car enters the lot. Each teenagers run in the identical route, away from the police car, however as an officer comes towards them, McMillan turns and flees in the wrong way, again towards the doorway of the shop. As he runs, one other officer, Nassar, approaches and shortly fires eight pictures at him. McMillan is mendacity on the bottom wounded inside about 5 seconds of exiting the automotive.

Legislation enforcement edited the video, freezing it at sure factors to indicate that McMillan is holding an object that resembles a firearm earlier than Nassar shoots him. No less than seven minutes go earlier than McMillan is obtainable medical care.

Three different teenagers had been within the automotive with McMillan and the opposite boy who fled; the video reveals them following orders to get on the bottom close to the car with their fingers out, and the police arrest them whereas McMillan bleeds close by. At one level, one of many teenagers asks Nassar to supply McMillan some help. “Sir, are you able to please examine on him? I believe he’s lifeless,” the teenager says, in line with the Huffington Submit, which obtained extra video by a data request.

McMillan died from his wounds two days later in a hospital.

The police say they had been responding to a 911 grievance about teenagers in a silver Kia Soul who had been “brandishing firearms” at a passing motorist and sporting camouflage masks. Based on a redacted report from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, printed by the Mississippi Free Press, Nassar mentioned that he gave verbal instructions for McMillan to cease working and drop his weapon, and that McMillan didn’t comply.

After the capturing, investigators interviewed the 4 different teenagers. The 16-year-old boy who fled with McMillan mentioned he didn’t hear any of the officers give instructions to place down weapons, and that he may solely hear gunshots. One other teen who remained within the automotive mentioned he heard officers yelling however couldn’t make out the phrases as a result of the automotive door was shut, and added that he didn’t see a weapon in McMillan’s hand when McMillan fled. Two different boys mentioned McMillan had a pistol on him; one mentioned McMillan didn’t elevate it or level it towards anybody, and the opposite mentioned he didn’t assume McMillan would hearth it towards an officer.

As different officers arrived to the scene, Nassar instructed considered one of them that he noticed a gun in McMillan’s hand whereas McMillan was working, however that McMillan didn’t seem to have the gun in his possession when Nassar handcuffed him afterward and turned over his physique. Officers later found a gun within the parking zone. 

A grand jury heard proof earlier this month and “discovered no legal conduct on behalf of the officer concerned,” the state legal professional common’s workplace introduced on Wednesday, offering no additional particulars on the components the jury thought of.

As I beforehand reported, McMillan’s mom, Katrina Mateen, and different supporters have been calling for the discharge of body-cam video for months, saying they didn’t belief the police’s model of occasions and needed to see footage themselves. Mateen instructed me that when she went to the Household Greenback retailer after the capturing, she tried to run previous officers to see whether or not the boy mendacity on the bottom was her son, however that an officer handcuffed her and instructed her to “shut up.”

McMillan would have turned 16 earlier this month. Days after his birthday, protesters gathered exterior the Household Greenback retailer to recollect him. “My son, he was a goal,” Mateen instructed me, crying. “I couldn’t be there for my son.”