Grand Jury Won’t Indict Officers in Jersey Shooting

A New Jersey grand jury has chosen not to indict two police officers connected to a Bridgeton shooting in late 2014.

Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley will not be charged in the shooting death of Jerame Reid, who was the passenger in a car that was pulled over for running a stop sign in December, NBC Philadelphia reports.

“Both officers explained in their statements, in substance, that they feared for their lives,” Cumberland County First Assistant Prosecutor Harold Shapiro said in a statement reported by NJ.com. “The grand jury was instructed on potential criminal charges against the two officers, as well as the law of justification — the use of force in protection of self and others — and based on their consideration of the facts and circumstances, declined to indict the two officers.”

Video of the traffic stop and subsequent shooting was released and drew national attention and outrage in the wake of the similar incidents in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City.

The car was pulled over normally, but when Days walked over to explain the stop and ask the driver, Leroy Tutt, for a driver’s license, he drew his weapon and pointed it at Reid, screaming profanities and instructing Reid not to move or reach for anything. Days reached into the car and retrieved a handgun, which later positive for Reid’s DNA.

“Contrary to [Days’] repeated commands not to move, to show his hands and not to get out of the vehicle, the passenger positioned his body and apparently attmped to force his way out of the passenger door,” says the prosecutor’s office announcement. “[Reid] announced that he was getting out of the vehicle. [Days] told him not to move, employed expletives and gave commands in a strong tone. Nevertheless, the passenger told [Days] he was getting out and onto the ground.”

A civil rights group said it would appeal to federal authorities to investigate the case.

“We have maintained the fact we have no faith or trust in the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office to hold one of their own officers accountable,” said Walter Hudson Sr., chair of National Awareness Alliance. “What is surprising about this case is that fact it took this long to arrive at an already preconceived idea to not indict police officers.”