HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama NAACP is criticizing the state’s decision not to prosecute a police officer who killed a black man in a case of mistaken identity.
A statement from the civil rights organization says Attorney General Steve Marshall’s decision essentially tells Alabama’s black residents their lives don’t matter.
And the Alabama president of the NAACP, Bernard Simelton, says the state is denying justice for relatives of Emantic “EJ” Bradford Jr.
The state’s investigation determined that the police officer in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover was justified in shooting Bradford because Bradford carried a weapon and appeared to pose a threat.
The officer mistook Bradford for the man responsible for gunfire that erupted moments earlier in the shopping mall on Thanksgiving night.