A judge on Tuesday dismissed all charges, including murder, against the Philadelphia police officer who had been accused of wrongfully killing a motorist last month.
Mark Dial had pulled over 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry on Aug. 14 before the officer shot him through the rolled-up driver’s side window, body camera footage has shown.
The footage was played in court but Philadelphia Municipal Judge Wendy Pew ruled there was not enough evidence to go to trial, bringing an emotional reaction from Irizarry’s loved ones in court.
[Philly DA Larry Krasner, impeached but not removed last year for “misbehavior in office,” insists that he will get the charges restored. It’s interesting to note that Krasner seems a lot more enthusiastic about actually prosecuting people when the defendants are police. The video doesn’t show much one way or the other about the nature of the threat that both officers perceived, but NBC notes that Irizarry was flashing a knife at the time of the shooting. That may not be enough to justify the response, but the judge clearly thinks that it’s enough to put aside all of Krasner’s charges. And even more interestingly, Krasner’s name never gets mentioned in this report. — Ed]
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