No charges filed after police shot an 11-year-old who called for help, officials say

A grand jury in Mississippi determined that there was no criminal conduct on behalf of the officer who shot and wounded an 11-year-old boy in his home who had called authorities for help.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch says her office will take no further action against Sgt. Greg Capers, the officer who shot Aderrien Murry.

In a statement released Thursday, Fitch says her office completed its review into the May 20 incident involving Capers in Indianola, Miss., and presented it to the grand jury in Sunflower County, Miss., on Wednesday — which then handed up the decision.

“As such, no further criminal action will be taken by this Office in this matter,” Fitch said.

Carlos Moore, the attorney representing the family of Aderrien Murry, told NPR that despite the grand jury’s decision, the shooting was not justified and he will continue to pursue the case.

“We are committed to seeking justice for Aderrien and his family, and we will persist in our efforts to ensure accountability through the civil legal process,” Moore said in a statement to NPR.

Aderrien’s mother, Nakala Murry, is asking for the body camera footage from the incident to be released publicly.

“Watching that footage was nothing I was prepared for emotionally, but it was something I had to do,” she said during a Wednesday press conference, Mississippi Today reports.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which was investigating the shooting alongside the attorney general’s office, did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

Capers’ attorney, Michael Carr, said Capers is relieved at the decision and is “looking forward to getting back to work.”

The move from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office comes nearly seven months after Murry was left seriously injured after Capers shot him in the chest responding to a 911 call that Murry had made.

Nakala Murry said she told her son to call the police after the father of one of her other children came to their home in the early hours of May 20 in an “irate” mood.

After arriving at the Murry family home, police instructed everyone inside to come out with their hands up. Nakala Murry says that’s when the 11-year-old emerged from around a corner, running toward the door. Capers then opened fire, according to the family.

Following the incident, Murry suffered a collapsed lung, fractured rib and lacerated liver.

In May, his family filed a $5 million federal lawsuit, which argues that the police officers who responded to the domestic disturbance call acted in a way that was “so outrageous that it shocks the moral and legal conscience of the community.”

The lawsuit names the city of Indianola along with the two police officials as defendants. The suit accuses the police department of gross negligence and reckless disregard, in addition to failing to train and supervise its officers properly.

In the suit, the family called for Capers and Indianola Police Chief Ronald Sampson to be fired, as they have repeatedly asked for body camera footage of the incident to be released.

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