Jonathan Ferrell courtesy dailymail.co.uk

A grand jury indicted a Charlotte, NC police officer for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed Florida A&M football player, Jonathan Ferrell (above). Ferrell wrecked his car on a back road in September and went to a nearby residence for help. He banged on the door, frightening the resident, who called police. Three officers responded, including Randall Kerrick, who fired 13 shots, 10 of which struck Ferrell. Kerrick was the only officer to fire his weapon. This is the second grand jury that the case has been before; the first refused to indict Kerrick, but the AG decided to put it before a second grand jury because the first one was missing four members. Voluntary manslaughter carries a prison sentence of up to 11 years . . .

Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from New York City, and it’s more of an Overreaction of the Day™. At 12:45 p.m. Monday, police received reports of a “small explosion” in the lobby of the building at 88 Lexington Avenue in Gramercy Park. A large response of fire, police, and EMS ensued, closing the streets and began evacuating the building. After finding nothing in the lobby, they made their way to the 16th floor. Eventually, investigators determined that a tire blew on a dolly during a delivery. No injuries were reported.

There has been a spate of home invasions in the Phoenix area recently, and in response, a local radio station published a short article titled How to protect your home from a home invasion. See if you can tell what’s missing. [h/t: NYC2AZ]

A Brevard County (FL) college student shot one of two men he said attacked him today in the parking lot at Eastern Florida State College. The 24-year-old man, Landrick Hamilton, said the two men approached him about 1:30 p.m. and began beating him with a pool cue. During the altercation, Hamilton retrieved a gun from his vehicle and opened fire on the attackers, hitting one in the chest with what is described as a non-life-threatening injury. Hamilton was also taken to the hospital. Campus and local police responded and secured the gun. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the fight was instigated by a verbal disagreement, and all three men claimed they were acting in self-defense. No arrests have been made as of the time of this writing. Note that Mr. Hamilton’s possession of the gun in his car would have been illegal less than two months ago, and he’d probably be (at least one of the ones) under arrest.

Iowa legislators are proffering a bill that would let active duty military buy handguns without going through the usual permit process. Under current law, any person buying a handgun must first obtain a permit, meet certain requirements and pay a fee. Rep Dwayne Alons said the bill would match Iowa’s law to that of 37 other states. Military training these individuals receive and the firearm knowledge they possess makes the permit process obsolete, he said. The bill is a watered down version of the one that Alons proposed last year, which would have allowed veterans to buy handguns without acquiring a permit; that bill stalled in committee. The current bill would affect an estimated 10,000 National Guard members in the state.

FPSRussia brings a 3-round burst AUG to the table. I gotta be honest, I haven’t even watched it. Someone tell me if I should.


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85 COMMENTS

    • The difference between good gun control and bad. Good gun control = hit your target. Bad gun control = see NYC, CA, DC, etc

    • The prosecution was jury shopping, they couldn’t get an indictment the first time so they went back again with the media to pressure the second jury. I would hate to be on the wrong end of the law for any reason out here.

      • The story really smells bad. One out of three cops fires his weapon, emptying it, into an unarmed man. That doesn’t look too good. Apparently, the trajectory of some of the bullets indicate that the man was shot while going down or on the ground, again, something that not only doesn’t look good, sounds like an out of control cop. The red mist. Something. Something very wrong. And there was a procedural problem with the first grand jury. Plus, the grand jury system is not once and done–the prosecutor can keep coming back with new evidence. There is no double jeopardy issue, and the defendant still gets his day in court. Are you suggesting that a police officer should get a free pass in a questionable shooting? If you do, I for one beg to differ.

      • That was my feeling too. Usually a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, but now they need a mulligan? Sounds a lot like the Martin\Zimmerman case.

        Could be that it was a completely bad shoot, criminal even (the fact that the other officers didn’t shoot says something) but the prosecution smells a little fishy.

        • It reminds me of the shooting in NYC where three cops fired on an unarmed man and hit two bystanders. But this cop had better aim. Ask an emergency room nurse or first responder just how non compliant injured people can be. I hope if I’m ever knocked senseless in a crash my local pd responds better than this.

        • Different jurisdictions select their grand jurors by different means, which may even be different from how that same jurisdiction selects trial jurors.

          In Harris County (Houston, Tx), trial jury rolls come from voter registration and drivers license/I.D. holders. Grand jurors, however, must submit a notarized application even to be in the juror pool from which grand juries are formed. It’s a much more proactive process.

          So, if people want to influence the delivery of justice, of which grand jury service is a hugely important element, then they should look into how to serve on one. Otherwise, ham sandwiches will do the job that they won’t.

      • It’s also worth mentioning that NC AG Roy Cooper has already started his campaign to run for governor in 2016. While I agree that the shooting is suspect and should go before a court, this is as much a politically motivated case as it is a call for justice for the officer involved.

      • Nope, the Grand Jury is supposed to consist of 18 members with 12 voting to proceed. The first time only 14 of the 18 were seated.

  3. Hey, I support the military. My dad is a veteran and my cousin just got from Afghanistan. I actually disagree that active duty personnel should go through less paperwork to get a pistol. A navy seal most soldiers are not. To be honest I suspect that a ccw holder fires more pistol rounds in their training class than a soldier does in basic training….let alone when they get further into their careers……

    But make that rule change apply to everyone, and I fully support it. Somehow, I don’t think that would have the same p.c. feel good rig to it though.

    • I think the tradition of military exemption from gun-buying paperwork goes back to the days when officers bought and carried their own pistols.

      Examples would be the British Firearms Act 1920 and Imperial Japan. I don’t know if the same idea applies to America back in WW2, Korea or Vietnam, but it was probably easier to bring your own pistol to the battlefield back when GCA 68 was passed.

      • Just based on my own experience (commissioned officer, Vietnam veteran) officers of that era were issued sidearms, they did not purchase their own.

    • I’m active duty and I disagree with this bill due to the fact that it again creates two classes of people . Those that can bypass the law due to choosing to serve and the people. The pistol permit process should be removed and the people allowed to buy a handgun without hassle. Permits do nothing but create hoops for the law abiding. I qualify maybe once every few years on my M9. I shot more last year with my personal weapons than in ten years of service in the Army.

    • detroiter, have you ever had basic training? And if so, which branch? Just trying to find out where you get your facts.

      • I did not touch a pistol until 5 years into my Army career and only then shot less than 50 rounds. If you are not an MP, combat MOS, or an officer, don’t expect to use or carry a handgun. There are always exceptions, but this was my experience over the last 12 years.

    • When my brother-in-law finished his National Guard boot camp, he stated he had only put 10 rounds through an M9. I myself have not served but I do thank those that have. I don’t agree with special gun rules for military or police.

    • ^this^ I’m active duty army, aviator. We qualify with both pistol and rifle, and in the past 6 years I’ve fired my M9 about 4 times, maybe a couple hundred rounds… Rifle fired 3 times. A lot of the time ranges get waived or pencil whipped for pre deployment requirements. “Military training” is such a crock when it comes to a lot of things.

      No special rules… No cut outs… No nothing. With special rules the mil/civ divide will continue, which doesn’t do anyone any good. The only thing I hate worse than pretentious jack booted thug police officers are pretentious soldiers or officers with a sense of entitlement. Rant complete.

    • Here in new Mexico, I can buy a pistol from a gun store with only a NICS check and walk out the door a few minutes later OCing the pistol without any other paper work. I can buy a pistol from a private seller without any permit needed and carry that gun OC immediately without begging permission from the state.. We also have shall issue for those that want to carry a loaded concealed weapon; or you can carry an unloaded concealed weapon without a permit.

      New Mexico; one of a number of reasons I love this state; to make this place perfect would be to get constitutional carry passed.

    • That’s really the feeling I get, too. I did go back and watch it, just so I wasn’t speaking from a position of ignorance. I will say that this was the best so far of the ones he’s done since he came back.

      • His new videos are very stiff. He’s not even doing the fake accent as well as he used to. No explosions and playing it safe. Still your right, this video is the best since he started again.

  5. Phoenix home invasion prevention

    Have a plan – get a gun and train family to use it.
    Establish rules – the oldest family member home at the given time is in charge of the gun.
    Make your home difficult to enter – signs that say “Home protected by Smith & Wesson”

    • The sign is a BAD IDEA. Having a sign like that in your front yard is an invitation to a murder conviction by an overly aggressive DA. “He was looking for an excuse to shoot someone! Look at the signs he had posted!”

    • I would offer an exception as my mother will be 94 in June and really shouldn’t be in charge of anything except being a great-grandmother….and maybe the channel changer.

  6. interesting article on defense of a home invasion. They seemed to forget the absolute best defensive weapon, the 12ga pump. nothing says go away you are not welcome like a pump. It seems as though they neglected all types of firearms, must have been an oversight.

    • Fun fact:

      Most recognizable sound in the world is the cycling of a pump shotgun.

      Next is keys jingling.

      I need to own a shotgun again, but the first one (Maverick 88 12ga, terrible purchase) was a POS.

      • H&R Pardner Pump is the way to go. Cheap and a lot of aftermarket 870 parts will work on it. The Walmart in my area has them for like $180.

      • What made it a POS, American Spirit? The weapon gets several excellent reviews on the following site:
        http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/mossberg-174-maverick-174-88-8482-12-gauge-pump-action-shotgun/pid-298703

        My current home defense shotgun is a bottom ejecting 12 gauge Ithaca Model 27 riot pump, loaded with 00 buck for which I traded in a Remington 870 with an 18″ barrel. I lust after a Benelli semi-auto, but will have to wait for a big lottery win to satisfy that lust.

        • My edition came before the (I think they did this anyway) upgrade to double slide levers, and I wasn’t impressed with the hardness/flexibility (lacking and too much) of the steel involved, other than the barrel (regular mossberg flavor). It was pretty damn light (I’m taller and not weak, so overall weight doesn’t bother me much if heavier) but anything more than light birdshot and it’d tend to beat the shoulder up without an additional buttpad, and when I have a shotgun I enjoy blasting the crap out of things for hours on end.

          It patterned nicely with the 28″ barrel and tightest (full, right?) choke, maybe 36″ wide or so at 50yds on a known range, chokes were removable and came with key.

          I admittedly don’t know much about shotguns (anti-gunner parental unit while I was still living there), and yeah, the thing was cheap ($180 after taxes), but a shotgun that won’t cycle every time without problems from the slide lock, hard to rack quickly or be sure of it not having those lock problems unless pointed at the sky is slightly more useful than a brick when it comes to trusting it to save your life. Who wants to point their gun at the ceiling every time they want/need to shoot it after the first round? Seriously, whatever the slide-lock mechanism they put in wouldn’t allow the weapon to be cycled unless it was above 45 degrees up angle or so.

          So I sold it (because my excuse for buying it was HD) then bought a revolver for HD and kept the ammo for my next shotgun that I’ll be able to afford someday. Maybe. I [email protected]&$Ing hope someone soon.

          I dunno. Alright as a range toy, it would have been okay as a bird hunting gun as long as you’re Annie Fing Oakley and can hit first time every time, but those weird slide lock problems just wouldn’t let me trust it.

          In Mavericks’/Mossbergs’ defense, I didn’t try to fix it or send it back at all – but a $180 5 shot pump should work right out the box Every. Single. Time. Or at least in my brain. It’s not a complicated mechanism and buying Guns That Work(tm) is high on the priority list of this broke dude.

        • The Ithaca is a beautiful home defense shotgun….hold the trigger and keep racking until empty.

          That said, the bottom eject makes it absolutely worthless as a sporting shotgun, IMHO. A very good friend of mine swears by them, his primary shotgun is an original 37 (pre-1967). When you’re going through 200-300 rounds on skeet tripping over all the spent shells is a PITA. That’s why I likes me a side eject…

  7. Judging by the facts in the stories (which may or may not be true) that NC cop needs to spend some serious time in jail for murdering Jonathon. I get tired of cops killing or beating law abiding citizens and getting away with it all while being protected by other cops who let it happen and knew it was wrong. Just as perps need to be held accountable for their actions, cops need to be held accountable for their illegal actions. BTW I’m not a cop but I’m from a family of cops so don’t give me a line about how cops need to be held above the law because they protect us from low lifes.

    • Cops should be held to a higher standard than common people. They are the recognized protectors of society, and when they break or misuse the bond of trust it can’t be gotten back. It is sad that I fear LEO’s when I have interactions with them. Police IMHO are more dangerous than criminals because I know where I stand and what I can or can’t do with your average thug. If a cop is beating me to death and I shoot him I’ll be crucified. If I shoot a gangbanger that is harming me I’ll be acquitted after a fair review.

      • I agree with everything you said, except “They are the recognized protectors of society” – Warren v. D.C. recognizes otherwise. The PERCEPTION might be that they are the protectors of society, but perception is about as far as it goes anymore.

        • Cops are the most noble and courageous people in society. When they are injured or killed it’s more often because they were overly generous to those who assault them to begin with. They get paid very little for what they do and even respond off duty while not being paid at all. Sometimes during those off duty responses they get killed. But still, even after your asinine comments they would risk their lives to save your sorry a$$es only to be scrutinized by their managers upon return to the station. You both are clearly not worthy of their respect or service, but then they have no choice, they just respond to the calls as they come.

        • DD

          Police, in general, very well paid with VERY generous fringe benefits (name ONE on Obumacare). Pay well beyond jobs with similar prereq of employment. Only requires a high school diploma, No heavy lifting or strenuous thinkin’ required. The “hardest” part (or not) is drug screening. But that is the hardest part of finding an employable body most anywhere in the US. The risk of gunshot to a cop is actually very low.

        • Persnob, FLAME DELETED, you and chad just placed the police below criminals and thugs. Maybe you should spend more time with the thugs you so admire and stop infecting the rest of society with your ignorance. As for the commenter who followed you: He’s also ignorant; Most police are college educated and even if their not simply by virtue of their having completed an academy they are eligible for about 30 college credits in many accredited colleges. Their jobs are extremely physically and mentally challenging and dangerous on many different levels. ANOTHER FLAME DELETED

        • …..there was nothing in my remark about police officers, other than the fact that the decision in Warren stated that they have no duty to protect anyone. Nowhere in there is any remark whatsoever about the actual officers.

          Reading comprehension, it is your friend. ¿me tendría más sentido en español? oder vielleicht Deutsch?

        • Most cops are little better than criminals and thugs. There are no good cops. If there were, they would spend most of their time policing their own ranks and there would be no blue wall of silence.

        • Really, DD, I am forced to pay the cop’s bloated salary, provide their platinum benefits, and give them retirement years before an honest citizen. I do not need their services or protection. Adding cops to any situation just makes it worse.

        • Peirsnub , You should stick to English as your having enough difficulty in that language. When you adopted as your own “cops are more dangerous than criminals” and ” I know where I stand … with your average thug,” you’re spreading a very damaging impression of today’s LEO community. Damaging because if someone is unfortunate enough to believe what you say they may not call on a LEO when they desperately need to. Whether you and Chad agree or not, the LEO community is what keeps our communities safe and to disparage them in the way you two have is pure ignorance. FLAME FLAME no need to delete.

        • If you’re going to throw quotes around something at least have the decency to make sure it was something I actually wrote.

        • I just have to respond to DD and his pompous statement about cops being “the most noble and courageous members of society”. I mean really how arrogant of you to say. Obviously you are a cop. I suppose people that actually save lives the hard way like DOCTORS fall beneath you Boy Scouts on the scale of civic importance correct? How come every cop I see looks like 600lbs of chewed bubblegum? Like a pile of f*cking pudding with a badge? Thank God for radios eh slick? You should get a real job and stop killing poodles for a living Tough Guy.

        • You agreed with “everything” he said. That’s adopting his words as your own as if you had wrote them yourself. Chad obviously had the courage to understand his mistake and end it there. Why don’t you? Too arrogant, or just incapable of understanding the truth?

        • Hi Chris, You’ll have a chance to educate yourself when the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Museum opens in DC. There you will get a more accurate depiction of what they do on a day to day basis. Believe it or not, these folks are your friends, sometimes the only ones you have when you need them. You should cultivate your relationship with them, not destroy it.

        • FLAME DELETED When you grow up you will undoubtedly realize that we live in a land that holds the rule of law to be sacred. When you live under the rule of law, you need people to enforce and adjudicate the law in an independent manner. That’s what we call civilization. All this will become clear to you in the future, again, when you grow up. I can only hope for you this happens before you run afoul of the law and end up incarcerated. You see scurvy, when you try to live outside what the rest of society has agreed upon as a rational and fair set of standards and rules, you end up being punished by that society. My suggestion to you is to try curbing your hatred of others and take a good long look at what’s inside you that makes you angry. Some emotional counseling may also be in order. Good luck to you scurvy, and FLAME DELETED.

  9. I don’t know about a trolley tire, but I was at a gas station when a guy blew a car tire up thru too much air pressure. It rattled things all around and the hub cap knocked the guy ass over tea kettle.

    • My yard cart blew a tire when I overloaded it. I was between my house and garage. It rang my bell, big time. It was like an old fashioned M-80 five feet away.

    • Being an idiot, last summer I inflated an 11 lb max tractor tire to around 120 lbs before I realized I was reading the gage wrong……..ever have one of those moments you’re incredibly glad you didn’t die?

  10. i found what was missing in the article about how to handle a home invasion. it was missing an effective way to do diddly squat if your home is invaded. it recommended pepper spray or a knife for defense. bwahahah thats a good one. i would rather rely on a unicorn taking me to a safe place than relying on my skills to fight off a gang of determined drugged up scumbags by using pepper spray. if you don’t have a firearm, you are not prepared to defend your family.

    i have been sprayed with pepper spray and it wasn’t fun. would it have stopped me from doing something i was determined to do? absolutely not! my eyes burned, it hurt to breathe, and my skin felt like it was burning. i was still fully functional and realized that oc-17 spray is next to useless. (at least the can i have is)

    • OC needs to be at least 35% to 40% oc by volume or otherwise it is pretty worthless. And I have only seen that in the military or for cops. Or bear spray, that is pretty good.

    • There is definitely a portion of the population that can fight through pepper spray. Typical police grade OC (Oleoresin of capsicum) is a 10% aqueous solution. I’ve used it to good effect on bad guys and ill – tempered dogs, but I’m also able to keep fighting when hit with it. Typical expiration times are
      3-4 years from date of manufacture, with effectiveness lessening significantly after that time.

  11. I haven’t watched the Professional Russian but a couple of times, but he doesn’t seem to enjoy himself like he used to.

    • Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, but I certainly did. The slow mo was great, and the fact that the AUG stayed so close on target in burst was truly amazing.

  12. To protect oneself from a home invasion, one only has to hang up a sign declaring it a gun free zone. No bad guy would be so bold as to ignore one of those.

  13. AmericanSpirit,
    A methhead, or most any criminal does not use logic, and many have never heard what a slid action shotgun sounds like. Don’t give your positions away by doing that. You shoot to stop someone, not to kill them, because your life is in danger. If they die, that’s a bumer, but you stopped them from killing you.
    Tipy

    • I bet most of them have watched a few dozen shoot-em-up movies.

      Good reminder on not giving away one’s position, though – when I had a pump I was usually at the top of a single flight of stairs, and that’s where both the people and the ‘good stuff’ were at, so it wasn’t really an issue tactically. Noise or no noise, start up the stairs and it’d get messy real fast. True castle doctrine state FTW.

      Also: maybe I’m unclear on this, but my impression is that when one shoots in a DGU, it must always be with the intent to kill rather than wound, accompanied by a legitimate fear for life and limb.

      Can somebody explicitly clarify, for future reference?

      • You are shooting to stop the threat. It just happens to be that shooting to stop the threat kinda goes with shooting to kill due to typically shooting center mass. But if you go and put two in the guys chest and he is on the ground and then put a security round in the guy you are screwed. And shooting to wound has never had a good legal track record, and is a horrible idea tactically.

      • AS, a long story greatly shortenend. Bad guy(s) blocked our back door. I was upstairs asleep with wife and babies. Sound of shattering glass wakes us. Wife scoops up babies and dials up cops. I grab shotgun and get to top pf stairs. Shotgun is kept unchambered because of toddlers. There is at least 1 person down stairs. Rack shotgun. Sound of scramble as person un asses the place.

        In hollywood the bad guys are a precision team of mercs armed with the latest and the greates. In the real world, they run.

  15. My senior year, I would blow up water balloons and pop them in the hallways next to my friends and yell stuff like HEADSHOT or DOUBLE KILL.
    NEVER GOT IN TROUBLE.
    I kinda wish I could go to NY and do it. Just for S’s and G’s.

  16. Charlotte has a problem with bias towards cops. There is a review board that has backed cops up every time over at least a decade. No charges for ever using excessive force. This may be the case of a justified shooting or not. But this cop is not going to get a fair trial, the issue with police shooting unarmed people has been in the Charlotte Observer newspaper for quite awhile, front page.

  17. If you kill a unarmmed man who has not actually touched you better have a damned good reason in my book. especially if you’re backed up by several cop buddies who can help you with an unarmed altercation. and that reason should be apparent on a dash cam. the fact that they haven’t released it makes me think that the officer in question viewed the trigger of his glock as an “easy” button for any uncomfortable situation.

  18. “A grand jury indicted a Charlotte, NC police officer for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed Florida A&M football player, Jonathan Ferrell (above). Ferrell wrecked his car on a back road in September and went to a nearby residence for help. He banged on the door, frightening the resident, who called police. Three officers responded, including Randall Kerrick, who fired 13 shots, 10 of which struck Ferrell. Kerrick was the only officer to fire his weapon. This is the second grand jury that the case has been before; the first refused to indict Kerrick, but the AG decided to put it before a second grand jury because the first one was missing four members. Voluntary manslaughter carries a prison sentence of up to 11 years . . .”

    Just another example, in a long line, of “murder under the color of authority”…This has become all too commonplace within the LE community, are they scared, are they preparing themselves to gun down unarmed citizens on the orders from the POTUS…???

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