A Mecklenburg County judge on Thursday effectively blocked release of the video from a controversial police shooting by giving control of the footage to the state prosecutor handling the case, the Charlotte Observer reports.
The dashcam video from one of the police cars at the shooting scene remains a vital piece of evidence in the case against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall Kerrick. He is charged with voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Sept. 14 shooting death of Jonathon Ferrell, who was unarmed.
Superior Court Judge Richard Boner said Ferrell’s death has already drawn an excessive amount of media attention. “This case should be decided in a courtroom and not in the pages of the Charlotte Observer,” he said.
He then signed a court order declaring that no “investigative material shall be released to the public except through the N.C. Attorney General’s office, as they deem appropriate.”
