A grand jury has decided not to file charges against a police officer who fatally shot a teenager following a chase last summer in a suburb near Atlanta.
A grand jury heard evidence Thursday in the death of 17-year-old Vincent Truitt. The grand jury’s decision clears the officer who killed the teen, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Truitt was shot twice in the back last July 13 after exiting a stolen car following a chase near Austell, in Cobb County, about 16 miles (25 kilometres) west of downtown Atlanta. He was one of three teens inside the vehicle that was spotted by police about 11:20 p.m. that night. He later died at a hospital.
“There is no justice in Cobb County,” attorney Gerald Griggs, an attorney for Truitt’s family, told the newspaper. “A man was shot in his back as he was running away from law enforcement. He posed no threat, and he was shot in the back and killed.”
Griggs and fellow family attorney Jackie Patterson had implored county officials to release a videotape of the shooting while pressing for the district attorney’s office to bring murder charges against the officer, whose name has not been released.
Police have said Truitt had a gun and that within seconds of an officer giving chase, Truitt was shot twice. The Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said video and still photographs showed the gun Truitt was holding when he was shot.
Police in Cobb County have confirmed that the officer is still employed by the department.
District Attorney Flynn Broady, Jr. said the case is now considered closed.
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