Prosecutor says LR officer justified, no charges in fatal shooting
Officer Charles Starks was justified in the Feb. 22 fatal shooting of Little Rock resident Bradley Blackshire and will face no criminal charges, according to a letter from Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley.
In a statement sent just after 5 p.m. Friday, the Little Rock Police Department announced that no charges would be filed against Starks, who fired his weapon at least 15 times after a traffic stop near the intersection of West 12th Street and South Rodney Parham Road.
In a statement, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said he met Friday afternoon with Kimberly Blackshire-Lee, Blackshire’s mother.
“In the spirit of transparency, I earnestly await the Department of Justice’s civil rights review and its results,” Scott said. “Whether or not you agree with Prosecuting Attorney Jegley’s decision, the fact remains that there is a Little Rock mother grieving the loss of her son.
“I understand the range of emotions that today’s decision has stirred, for I too share in your pain and frustration,” Scott added. “However, I personally ask that the citizens of Little Rock remain peaceful.”
The Police Department’s internal investigation has been completed, but the chief has not yet made a decision, according to the department’s release.
Starks shot Blackshire as the 30-year-old steered the black Nissan Altima toward the police officer, video of the event shows. The car had been reported stolen.
The video, released by the Police Department, shows Starks’ patrol car stopping about 11 a.m. in front of the Altima, which had just backed into a parking space of a business near the West 12th Street and Rodney Parham intersection.
Starks got out of his car, approached the driver’s side of the Nissan and told the driver to get out of the vehicle.
Video shows that Blackshire did not comply with the officer’s commands and drove the vehicle forward, grazing the officer’s hip.
Starks fired his department-issued pistol and kept firing as he stepped in front of the moving Nissan, which struck him and knocked him to the ground, the video shows.
In a letter addressed to Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey, Jegley wrote that the car Blackshire was driving is “without question” a deadly weapon. The letter also made public for the first time that a gun was in the vehicle Blackshire was driving.
A loaded .45-caliber handgun was found in the Altima after the shooting, and cartridges for the weapon were found in Blackshire’s pockets, the prosecutor’s letter says. The letter notes that the gun was found after the shooting.
Jegley wrote that the car is obviously moving in Starks’ direction and that Starks had no duty to retreat from an oncoming vehicle.
“It will be argued that the vehicle was moving too slowly to be a threat,” Jegley wrote. “But the fact that it is moving at all indicates that Mr. Blackshire had his foot on the gas (at the very least it was not on the brake).
“The use of deadly force by Mr. Blackshire was as imminent as a stepped on accelerator and no different from a pulled trigger.”
In the Little Rock Police Department’s statement, spokesman Eric Barnes said the chief’s review Jegley
of the internal investigation will take about two weeks.. The internal investigation will determine whether Starks violated any department policy during the incident.
Friday’s announcement came 56 days after Blackshire was killed.
In those weeks, his family members and community advocates have called for the termination and prosecution of Starks, the establishment of a citizens review board, and the purchase of body cameras for
all Little Rock police officers.
The shooting also garnered national attention after the department released dash-camera and surveillance video showing Starks firing his weapon more than 15 times.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Malik Saafir, a pastor and spokesman for the group of demonstrators that have protested in the weeks since Blackshire’s death, asked that no one respond to the prosecuting attorney’s ruling with violence.
Jegley’s letter referred to the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court Case Graham v. Connor, which in part says that an officer’s actions must be judged from the officer’s situation and understanding at the time, not from an outside perspective after the fact.
“From the time Mr. Blackshire’s vehicle first bumps Starks to the time Officer Simpson rams the Blackshire vehicle, only 5 seconds pass,” Jegley wrote.
“So even though the video gives the impression of everything happening slowly, these are truly split-second judgments that Starks is making.”
In the investigative file turned over to the prosecuting attorney’s office, Starks said he was afraid of being shot and stepped in front of the vehicle to “seek cover from gunfire” and to “stay squared up to Mr. Blackshire so that his [Starks’ armored] vest will provide maximum protection against gunfire,” according to the letter.
Starks also reported that Blackshire had reached down to the car’s gear shift and — though he never saw a gun — Blackshire’s hand “stays out of sight.”
The passenger in Blackshire’s vehicle, 20-year-old Desaray Clarke, said in a later interview that Blackshire was “digging around in his pocket where she says he normally keeps his gun,” the letter said.
Jegley said Starks’ fear of gunfire was the reason he stepped in front of a moving vehicle. Starks said officers are trained to seek cover behind their vehicle’s engine block when in fear of being shot, according to the letter.
“With all that being said, Starks fires at least 3 times while still not being directly in front of the car,” the letter said. “And even though the car is moving towards him, it is moving very slowly. Starks and the car cross paths as it turns to the left and into him as he tries to get to his unit. When the car hits him the second time Starks falls on the hood of the car and continues to fire.”
The decision not to charge Starks was made quickly compared with previous shootings by officers. An officer involved in a fatal shooting from 2016 was cleared 147 days after the incident, according to previous reports.
In a 2017 shooting, the decision to clear the officer of any charges was made 243 days after the man died.