Former Alabama police officer charged with murder in fatal shooting of a Black man outside his home

By Jaide Timm-Garcia and Jay Croft, CNN

(CNN) — A former Alabama police officer was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Black man outside his home, Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said Friday.

An Alabama grand jury indicted Mac Bailey Marquette, 23, on Thursday, Anderson said at a news conference.

Marquette is one of three officers who were fired in connection with the September 29 killing of Stephen Perkins in Decatur as a towing company tried to repossess his vehicle, police said. A fourth officer was suspended without pay.

Anderson said none of the other officers have been charged.

Police shot Perkins, 39, after he allegedly “brandished a handgun” equipped with a light “towards an officer with the Decatur Police Department,” the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said two weeks before last month’s firings.

Perkins died later at a hospital, police said.

His killing was another in a series of fatal shootings of Black men by White officers since the death of George Floyd in 2020 at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

Perkins’ confrontation with police began about 1:30 a.m. when the towing company called police to Perkins’ home and alleged he had pulled a handgun on the tow truck driver, Decatur police said in an initial statement.

When officers arrived, Perkins came out with a handgun and threatened the driver, police said.

The initial police statement said Perkins refused to drop his weapon when officers ordered him to do so, and an officer shot him when he turned the gun toward that officer.

Police Chief Todd Pinion later said the officer did not order Perkins to drop a weapon.

“We now know the officer identified themselves as ‘police’ and ordered Mr. Perkins to ‘get on the ground’ prior to the officer firing rather than ordering him to drop the weapon at that time as we initially reported the morning of the shooting,” Pinion said in a social media post October 11.

“That means that we also erred in stating Mr. Perkins ‘refused’ to drop his firearm prior to the shooting. I apologize for the inaccurate description of the encounter in our initial statement,” Pinion’s post reads.

On Friday, Anderson explained why only one officer was indicted.

“There were four officers at the scene when this incident occurred, and there was only one officer who fired any shot,” Anderson said. “After having considered all of the facts and evidence in the case, the grand jury agreed unanimously that there were no violations with regards to the laws of the state of Alabama against any other officer.”

Nicholas Perkins, the brother of Stephen Perkins, told CNN that the family is “glad for this baby step of justice, but this is not the end,” and the family will pursue federal action against the other officers.

“There were four officers involved and we would like to see all four charged with something,” Perkins said.

Stephen Perkins was married and left behind two children, his brother has said.

Perkins’ family has disputed any claim he owed money on his car, saying they “found financial receipts proving” he was not at risk of “being in an active status of repossession” and “monthly payments were processed through his financing company.”

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