Police officer to face grand jury in killing of black man on Florida highway

Source: Guardian

Police officer to face grand jury in killing of black man on Florida highway


Decision follows six-month investigation into the death of Corey Jones, a church musician shot and killed by plainclothes officer Nouman Raja in 2015

Richard Luscombe in Miami
@richlusc
Wednesday 27 April 2016 19.00 EDT

The fate of a plainclothes police officer who shot dead a church band musician in an early-morning confrontation beside a Florida interstate will rest with a grand jury, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.

The decision follows a six-month investigation by the Palm Beach county state attorney and sheriff’s offices, and the FBI, into the controversial death of Corey Jones, 31, on 18 October last year. Jones, 31, who was black, was shot and killed by officer Nouman Raja of the Palm Beach Gardens police department as he waited at the roadside for a breakdown truck. Jones’s death is one of a spate of fatal incidents involving police and black men, and sparked public outcry.

Dave Aronberg, the county’s state attorney, had the authority to either charge Raja, who is of mixed racial background, or clear him of responsibility, but opted instead to convene a grand jury before 30 June to decide if the officer, who was on probation and fired one month after the shooting, will face trial.

“Our only goal is to do justice and we’ve been as transparent as we can under the rules,” Aronberg said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, in which he acknowledged the community tensions and demonstrations the killing had stoked and the time it had taken to complete the inquiry.



Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/corey-jones-police-fatal-shooting-florida-grand-jury