2 weeks ago
Last week, the Monroe County District Attorney’s office announced it had cleared the officers of wrongdoing.
The use of deadly force in this case was justified, according to the DA’s office, because the officers did not know the weapon Hall carried wasn’t lethal, and because he failed to follow officers’ orders. “It’s a testament to the troopers that they didn’t shoot sooner,” said First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso during a press conference.
The family and its supporters reject this decision, saying it amounts to blaming the victim.
“You have a victim of gun violence, police brutality, and you also have a youth that is suffering from mental health [crisis],” said Kim. She connected those circumstances to the death of Walter Wallace, Jr., a Black man with known mental illness who was killed by Philadelphia police last summer.
Fatal Shooting of Christian Hall Justified, Says Pennsylvania DA yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jacob: Civil suit is already starting to progress
Jacob noted that he began preparing documents to file in the Monroe County court regarding a civil lawsuit. This is simply so the family can get access to the very documents that frankly the entire public should have already had access to, and that would be the incident reports, supplemental reports, use of force reports, complete, unedited video, etc., Jacob said.
After that information is obtained, it will be used to identify the police involved in the shooting, and who the defendants will be. Following that, the case will move to federal court for a federal civil rights lawsuit based on the idea that the use of force was objectively not reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances.