Ex-officer who shot and killed unarmed US teen convicted of negligent homicide
A former Arkansas deputy was convicted on Friday of negligent homicide and sentenced to a year in jail for shooting an unarmed teenager whose death last year drew the attention of national civil rights leaders.
Jurors acquitted Michael Davis of manslaughter while finding him guilty of the misdemeanor charge in the death of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain during a June traffic stop outside Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles north-east of Little Rock.
Brittain was white, as is Davis. Brittain was eulogized last year by the civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton, who said the death highlighted the need for interracial support for changes in policing.
The maximum jail term faced by Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke county sheriff’s office, was one year. He would have faced between three and 10 years in prison for manslaughter, a felony. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Davis was also given a $1,000 fine. He remains free on bond pending appeal.
Davis told investigators he shot Brittain once in the neck after the teen exited his truck and reached into the bed of the pickup while failing to comply with commands to show his hands, according to the arrest affidavit. A passenger and another witness testified they never heard Davis tell the teen to show his hands.
Jury deliberations lasted less than three hours. After the verdict was announced, Brittain’s family and friends chanted “Justice for Hunter” outside the national guard facility used for the trial.
Rebecca Payne, Brittain’s grandmother, said family members wanted the deputy convicted of the felony to ensure he could not serve as an officer again.
“Now what’s going to happen? Are people going to have to fear for their lives again?“she told reporters.
Davis was fired by the Lonoke county sheriff, John Staley, for not turning on his body camera until after shooting Brittain.
The passenger in Brittain’s truck said he and the teen had been working on the pickup’s transmission. Family members said Brittain was grabbing a container that held antifreeze to place behind the truck’s wheel, to stop it rolling backward. Investigators found no firearms in or near the truck.
Davis testified that he thought the teen was grabbing for a gun.
“I didn’t get into this job to kill people,” he said.
Robert Newcomb, Davis’s attorney, said he planned to challenge the standard jurors used to determine whether Davis was negligent.
“The police officer has a lot more situational awareness of a danger than maybe you or I would be aware of,” Newcomb said.
The sheriff said he respected the jury’s decision.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Devon Jacob, representing Brittain’s family, criticized the sheriff for not firing Davis over the shooting itself. The civil rights attorneys, who represented George Floyd’s family after Minneapolis police killed him in May 2020, said: “Hunter deserved better.
“The jury’s decision is a declaration that an Arkansas law enforcement officer, in full uniform, unlawfully killed Hunter Brittain,” the attorneys said.