COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Maryland prosecutors on Thursday ruled out criminal charges against a police officer who fatally shot a man during a tactical team’s predawn, no-knock raid on his family’s home, a killing that galvanized a loose network of anti-government extremists this year.
Duncan Socrates Lemp’s family says the 21-year-old was sleeping in his bed next to his girlfriend when a Montgomery County police officer opened fire, but prosecutors concluded that Lemp pointed a rifle at the officer and posed a threat.
Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson Jr.’s office, which reviewed the case and presented evidence to a grand jury, said in a 17-page report that the unidentified officer was justified in using deadly force.
Members of a tactical unit were serving the no-knock search warrant at the Lemp family’s home about 4:30 a.m. on March 12 when the officer fired five shots through a shattered window from outside, hitting Lemp all five times.
Family attorney Rene Sandler said the report reveals that no body camera videos captured the shooting. She also noted that prosecutors concluded there was no evidence of any crossfire or that Lemp’s gun had been fired.
WHY?
"...after receiving an anonymous tip that he illegally possessed firearms, police said. Lemp had a criminal record as a juvenile ..."
“The police felt that knocking and announcing their presence would put the officers in serious danger if Lemp decided to resist his arrest,” prosecutors wrote.
Sandler said that there was no evidence that has been provided to them or can be relied upon to show that Lemp was an imminent threat to the public or to anyone,
“And the police chose the most lethal possible way to talk to Mr. Lemp at 4:30 in the morning, by shooting and killing him through his window of his bedroom, where he was sleeping next to his pregnant girlfriend,” Sandler said.
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Duncan Socrates Lemp’s family says the 21-year-old was sleeping in his bed next to his girlfriend when a Montgomery County police officer opened fire, but prosecutors concluded that Lemp pointed a rifle at the officer and posed a threat.
Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson Jr.’s office, which reviewed the case and presented evidence to a grand jury, said in a 17-page report that the unidentified officer was justified in using deadly force.
Members of a tactical unit were serving the no-knock search warrant at the Lemp family’s home about 4:30 a.m. on March 12 when the officer fired five shots through a shattered window from outside, hitting Lemp all five times.
Family attorney Rene Sandler said the report reveals that no body camera videos captured the shooting. She also noted that prosecutors concluded there was no evidence of any crossfire or that Lemp’s gun had been fired.
WHY?
"...after receiving an anonymous tip that he illegally possessed firearms, police said. Lemp had a criminal record as a juvenile ..."
“The police felt that knocking and announcing their presence would put the officers in serious danger if Lemp decided to resist his arrest,” prosecutors wrote.
Sandler said that there was no evidence that has been provided to them or can be relied upon to show that Lemp was an imminent threat to the public or to anyone,
“And the police chose the most lethal possible way to talk to Mr. Lemp at 4:30 in the morning, by shooting and killing him through his window of his bedroom, where he was sleeping next to his pregnant girlfriend,” Sandler said.
------------------ oh sorry........... wrong color.
