Alabama Judge Rules Cop Didn’t Prove Self-Defense In Fatal Shooting Of Black Man

Just before  2 a.m. on Sept. 29, 2023, a police officer in Montgomery, Alabama, fired 18 shots at an armed Black man. The officer claimed self-defense and motioned to have his case dismissed, citing the state’s “Stand your ground” law, which “grants immunity from prosecution to any individual who uses deadly force as long as they are in a place they have a right to be and reasonably believe they are in danger,” as the Associated Press reported. However, that motion was dismissed Monday after police bodycam footage proved, once again, that there is never a reason to take a police officer’s word at face value.

According to AP, Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott ruled that Mac Marquette, who is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Steve Perkins, failed to prove he acted in self-defense when he shot Perkins, who was standing in his own front yard at the time he was shot by Marquette, who had accompanied a tow truck driver who was there to repossess Perkins’ pick-up truck.

From AP:

Tow truck driver Caleb Combs was authorized by Perkins’ creditor to repossess the truck because Perkins was months behind on his payments, according to lien documents entered into evidence. But the ruling said that Marquette wasn’t authorized to assist Combs based on an Alabama law that requires a court order for law enforcement to be involved in a repossession, which the officers didn’t have.

The judge heard conflicting testimony in an earlier hearing about why Marquette and the two other officers, Joey Williams and Christopher Mukadam, were at Perkins’ house in the first place.

Marquette, Mukadam and Williams were dispatched to help Combs after Perkins pointed a gun at his chest when the tow truck driver first tried to take Perkins’ vehicle, according to testimony from Williams and Mukadam. Combs met the officers at a nearby tow-yard.

Combs waited for the three officers to set up covertly around Perkins’ house before Combs’ returned to repossess Perkins’ vehicle for a second time. All three officers were intentionally hidden from Perkins’ front door when Combs returned and Perkins’ again emerged from his house with his gun, pointing it at Combs.

Body camera footage revealed that Marquette unloaded all the bullets in his gun less than two seconds after he emerged from where he was hiding on the side of Perkins’ house. Even then, the judge wrote, Marquette was partially obstructed by the bed of Perkins’ truck. Perkins turned to face Marquette, and briefly tried to move his gun away from the officer before Marquette started shooting, according to Elliott.

The judge’s ruling noted that the cops should have informed Combs “that he could take whoever he wanted with him to assist with the repossession, but it could not be law enforcement without judicial process.” The responding officers testified they were only there to “keep the peace” and “investigate” Perkins for pointing a gun at Combs, which might have resulted in misdemeanor menacing charges. However, a state investigator testified that, while officers accompanying repo-men to keep the peace is common, “visibility” is required, so the officers engaging in what looked like a sting operation was “unusual” for a supposed menacing investigation because it is a method typically “used for an active crime scene.”

So, to recap, the officers probably shouldn’t have been at Perkins’ resident in the first place, but even if they were within their right to be there, they were not authorized to hide and them ambush Perkins, who Marquette ended up killing within seconds of identifyong himself as an officer of the law.

Judge Elliott ruled that Marquette was “acting outside of the scope of his authority” to investigate a menacing allegation “and was therefore a trespasser.” He said a jury will decide whether Marquette was there to keep the peace, and based on that outcome, the jury will have to decide if he acted in his capacity as a police officers, and whether he acted “reasonably” when he fired 18 shots , killing Perkins.

Marquette is due back in court in June.

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