A former Alabama police officer has been charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of Stephen Perkins, a black man who confronted a tow truck driver as he tried to repossess his truck.
Mac Bailey Marquette, 23, formerly an officer with the Decatur Police Department, turned himself in Thursday at the county jail and was booked on a grand jury warrant for murder, Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said at a news conference Friday.
“It’s not easy for me to be in the position of prosecuting an officer, but in this situation, it was the right thing to do,” Anderson told reporters.
Marquette was pictured smiling broadly in a mugshot before he was released from the Morgan County Jail on $30,000 bond late Friday morning.
Marquette’s arrest comes less than two weeks after the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) turned over the findings of a months-long investigation into fatal officer-involved shootings to the DA’s office.
Mac Bailey Marquette, 23, is charged with murder in the shooting death of a black man. Morgan County Sheriff’s Office Stephen Perkins, 39, was killed outside his home while trying to stop the repossession of his truck. Facebook/Clay Perkins
The three other officers involved in the incident, Christopher Mukkadam, Joey Williams and Vance Summers, do not face criminal charges because they did not fire at Perkins, Anderson said.
Perkins, 39, was fatally shot by an officer, later identified as Marquette, outside his home in Decatur on September 29, after a tow truck driver who had come to tow the victim’s vehicle told the police accompanying him that he had been threatened with a gun.
Perkins was armed with a handgun equipped with a light and “pointed the weapon at an officer,” prompting him to open fire, ALEA said in a statement released in September.
A neighbor’s surveillance video showed Perkins’ GMC Sierra being towed away as he lay dead on the ground. WAFF48
Surveillance video from a neighbor’s home released by WAFF in November captured a line of shots being fired at Perkins.
The video also shows the victim’s truck being accidentally pulled over as he lay dead on the ground, just a few steps from his home.
An attorney for the Perkins family claimed that the officer immediately opened fire on the homeowner, who appeared to be unaware of police presence on his property, based on the video.
The man’s family also said the payments on his GMC Sierra truck are current, which is why he’s trying to stop repossession.
The Perkins family has filed a federal wrongful-death suit against police officers and city officials. Perkins’ Murder Family Circulation sparks protests and marches in Decatur. AP
Perkins is a married father of two who works for a pet food manufacturer and has a mostly clean criminal record, aside from a DUI arrest more than a decade ago, NBC News previously reported.
Perkins’ killing was followed by months of protests and marches in Decatur.
The man’s family has filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the police officers involved in the shooting and Decatur city officials.
Marquette has been fired from the Decatur police force. Decatur Alabama Police Department
Three of the cops, including Marquette, were fired last month, and a fourth was suspended without pay.
All four officers have appealed the decision regarding their employment, and hearings for those appeals are scheduled to begin later this month.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
