{"id":9166,"date":"2017-09-16T05:09:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T09:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=9166"},"modified":"2017-09-16T05:12:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T09:12:16","slug":"protests-st-louis-officer-cleared-shooting-anthony-lamar-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/09\/16\/protests-st-louis-officer-cleared-shooting-anthony-lamar-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests after St Louis officer cleared in shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

A white former Missouri policeman has been found not guilty of murdering a black man by shooting him five times after a car chase.<\/p>\n

A judge acquitted Jason Stockley of first-degree murder over the 2011 shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith in the city of St Louis.<\/p>\n

Mr Stockley, 36, was recorded during the pursuit saying: “Gonna kill this [expletive], don’t you know it.”<\/p>\n

There were scuffles as protesters took to the streets after the verdict.<\/p>\n

St Louis police later said 13 people were arrested, and four officers were injured during the protests.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators were pepper sprayed after officers said they were attacked with rocks and water bottles.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\u00a0Follow<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"\"<\/span>St. Louis, MO Police<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u2714<\/b><\/span>@SLMPD<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Agitators are engaging officers at Tucker & Spruce. Officers being hit with water bottles. Demonstrators ordered to disperse.\u00a0#<\/span>stlverdict<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said earlier this week the state’s National Guard had been activated to safeguard city residents and property.<\/p>\n

The Republican said the step was “a necessary precaution”.<\/p>\n

Mr Smith was a new father and engaged to be married when he was killed on 20 December 2011.<\/p>\n

Mr Stockley and his partner said they believed they had observed Mr Smith engaged in a drug deal outside a fried chicken restaurant near central St Louis.<\/p>\n

Police dashcam video and surveillance footage shows Mr Smith reversed his car into the police vehicle twice during his attempt to drive off.<\/p>\n

After a three-minute high-speed car chase, Mr Stockley told his partner, who was in the driver’s seat, to ram Mr Smith’s car.<\/p>\n

Mr Stockley then ran to Mr Smith’s window and fired five shots, hitting him each time.<\/p>\n

The former police officer chose a bench trial rather than a jury.<\/p>\n

St Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson wrote in Friday’s ruling: “This Court, in conscience, cannot say that the State has proven every element of murder beyond a reasonable doubt, or that the State has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defence.”<\/p>\n

St Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said she was “disappointed” with the judge’s decision.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also accused Mr Stockley of planting a gun in Mr Smith’s car after shooting him.<\/p>\n

The .38 calibre revolver recovered from the Buick had Mr Stockley’s DNA on it, but not Mr Smith’s.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors questioned why Mr Stockley had rummaged through the boot of his police patrol car immediately after the shooting, before returning to Mr Smith’s car.<\/p>\n

Mr Stockley said he was retrieving some equipment to administer first aid.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyers said Mr Stockley had acted “reasonably” in self-defence by killing a drug suspect he believed was reaching for a hidden handgun.<\/p>\n

Only Mr Smith’s DNA was traced on a plastic bag of heroin that was also found in the car.<\/p>\n

The St Louis Metropolitan Police Department initially deemed the killing justifiable.<\/p>\n

But the investigation continued and Mr Stockley was charged last year after prosecutors cited unspecified new evidence.<\/p>\n

He quit the force in 2013 and now lives in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n

The Board of Police Commissioners settled a wrongful death lawsuit in 2013 with Mr Smith’s family for $900,000 (\u00a3663,000).<\/p>\n

Mr Smith’s fianc\u00e9e has urged the community to avoid violence.<\/p>\n

“However it goes, I ask for peace,” Christina Wilson told a news conference this week alongside the governor.<\/p>\n

The case has inflamed racial tensions in St Louis, which has one of the highest murder rates in the US.<\/p>\n

Rioting erupted in 2014 in nearby Ferguson, Missouri after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A white former Missouri policeman has been found not guilty of murdering a black man by shooting him five times after a car chase. A judge acquitted Jason Stockley of first-degree murder over the 2011 […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[4169,4170,371],"class_list":{"0":"post-9166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-jason-stockley","10":"tag-lamar-smith","11":"tag-missouri","12":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9166"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9173,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9166\/revisions\/9173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}