‘No criminal conduct’ found in Mississippi police shooting

GULFPORT, MISS. — GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi grand jury has discovered “no legal conduct” by a legislation enforcement officer who fatally shot a Black teenager final fall outdoors a reduction retailer in Gulfport, state Lawyer Common Lynn Fitch introduced Wednesday

An officer shot 15-year-old Jaheim McMillan within the head Oct. 6 after Gulfport police pulled over a automobile carrying the teenager and different minors. McMillan, a Gulfport Excessive College freshman, died two days later at a hospital in Cell, Alabama.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation examined the case, because it does with all shootings involving legislation enforcement officers. Fitch mentioned in a press release that her workplace offered info from that investigation to a Harrison County grand jury earlier this month.

As a result of the grand jury declined to indict anybody within the capturing, Fitch mentioned her workplace will take no additional motion within the case.

McMillan’s demise has prompted protests in Gulfport, with native residents, Black Lives Matter group members, nationwide civil rights figures and different activists demanding the officer concerned be charged and calling for the discharge of police physique digital camera footage of the capturing.

The police division has not launched the identify or race of the officer.

Gulfport police mentioned in a information launch quickly after the capturing that it occurred after they responded to a 911 name about a number of minors waving weapons at different motorists. Officers pulled the minors over within the car parking zone of a Household Greenback retailer.

Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper mentioned an officer confronted an armed suspect, since recognized as McMillan, leading to photographs being fired. He mentioned police took 4 different suspects into custody, and several other firearms have been recovered from the scene.

McMillan’s mom has mentioned she doesn’t imagine her son was armed.

In a video taken by a bystander after the photographs have been fired, McMillan could possibly be seen on the bottom in entrance of the door to the shop. A witness mentioned police handcuffed {the teenager} after he had been shot.

The Solar Herald reported Wednesday that Mississippi Public Security Commissioner Sean Tindell mentioned authorities acquired in contact with McMillan’s mom, Katrina Mateen, and different kin to set an appointment to satisfy with them in regards to the grand jury choice and about plans to publicly launch the police physique digital camera footage of the capturing.

WLOX-TV reported that the police chief mentioned that within the days after the capturing, threats had been made to an officer wrongfully accused of capturing the teenager. Tindell advised WLOX in December that McMillan’s household had been proven each a slow-motion video and an unedited video of the capturing.

In early February, police arrested protesters who went into Gulfport Metropolis Corridor and chanted as they demanded details about the capturing.