Wake DA: No charges for police officers who shocked man outside sweepstakes parlor
The Wake County District Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday that it would not file charges against the Raleigh police officers who shocked and killed a man outside a sweepstakes parlor in January.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Emancipate North Carolina executive director Dawn Blagrove held a Wednesday news conference in Wallace to discuss two cases:
- James Lanier's February 2023 death at the hands of Wallace police
- Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman's decision not to file charges against Raleigh police officers in the January 2023 death of Darryl Williams
Williams' family, their lawyers and Crump had been calling for the officers involved in Williams' death to be fired.
On Wednesday, a Raleigh police spokesperson said the six officers involved in Williams' death are still on administrative leave.
“It is just so aggravating to see Black person after Black person killed unjustifiably and unnecessarily,” Crump said Wednesday. “And they just try to sweep it under the rug as if our lives don’t matter.
“And, we [aren’t] going to let them sweep this under the rug – not in Darryl Tyree Williams’ [death] in Raleigh, North Carolina, or not in James Lanier’s [death] here in Wallace, North Carolina.”
Click or tap here: Watch Wednesday's news conference
An autopsy found Williams died of "sudden cardiac arrest in the setting of cocaine intoxication, physical exertion, conducted energy weapon use and physical restraint."
On Jan. 17, Raleigh police officers on patrol on Rock Quarry Road in southeast Raleigh spotted Williams, 32, in his car in a parking lot . They suspected Williams had alcohol and marijuana in the car and asked to search it.
Body camera video from the encounter shows Williams try to run from police. They shocked him three times with a Taser, including twice after he could be heard on the video saying he had a heart condition.
Two of the officers involved told investigators they did not hear those statements, according to the district attorney's report.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman wrote, "It has been concluded that the officers’ actions were not a violation of the law as set forth in North Carolina General Statute 15A-401 which allows a law enforcement officer to use force to take into custody an individual attempting to elude arrest, or to defend himself or another from the use of physical force by an individual he is attempting to take into custody."
“Why it wasn’t an involuntary manslaughter charge or whatever charge, it is … a state-sanctioned killing of yet again, another unarmed Black person,” Crump said of Williams’ death. “And these [district attorneys] continue to come up with justification for white police officers and Black police officers to kill Black and brown people unjustly.”
Crump said he hopes the Department of Justice will investigate the killing of Williams.
“[In the police body cam video], Darryl says, ‘I’ve got heart problems,’ and he says that and everyone hears him say it,” Crump said. “Well, you know what the officers who Tased him said?
“They didn’t hear him say that.”
Crump said Freeman claimed she couldn’t prove whether the officers heard Williams.
Blagrove claimed Freeman has a "documented history" that shows her "unwillingness to protect all people in the community."
“Lorrin Freeman should be ashamed of her inability to bring charges in this case," Blagrove said.
Seth Stoughton, a former law enforcement officer, who testified as an expert in police excessive force in the trial of Derek Chauvin, convicted of killing George Floyd, told WRAL News that the officers' actions did not raise any red flags.
Williams' family began their search for justice almost immediately after his death. Williams’ mother, Sonya Williams, held a press conference on Jan. 24 to demand answers.
Kerwin Pittman, a social activist in city of Raleigh, blasted the idea of "pro-active patrols" at that time.
"'Proactive patrolling' is nothing more than racial profiling the marginalized communities," he said. “It’s finding an excuse when there is no excuse to stop minorities in minority communities."
The district attorney's report says police had been called to the area of 800 Rock Quarry Road where Williams was found more than 100 times in the year before his death "for a myriad of reasons including shots fired, trespass, suspicious persons, and controlled substance offenses."
Officers searched Williams' car after he was subdued and found drugs and two guns, one of which had been reported stolen.
