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A Judge in Alabama on Monday ruled that a police officer did not prove that he acted in self -defense when he shot an armed black man standing in his own front yard, after the footage of the body camera fired the 18 bullets officer less than two seconds after identifying himself as law enforcement.
Mac Marquette, 25, is charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Steve Perkins shortly before 02:00 on September 29, 2023, while accompanying a driver of a trailer to take Perkins’ bakkie back to his home in Decatur.
Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott denied Marquette’s motion to reject the case in a self-defense immunity hearing. The new trial date has been set for June, but the defense can appeal Elliott’s decision to the state’s appeal court.
The law of the “stand your ground” of Alabama grants immunity of persecution to any individual who uses fatal power, as long as they are in a place where they have the right to be and reasonably believe that they are in danger.
Elliott wrote that the jury would have to consider whether Marquette “acts in his capacity as a police officer” when he shot Perkins.
“It is on this hinge that the door of this case is swinging,” he said.
Perkins’s creditor is authorized to take the truck back because Perkins was months behind on his payments, according to the lien documents that evoked evidence. But the ruling said that Marquette was not authorized to help combs based on an Alabama Act that required a law enforcement court order to be involved in a repetition that the officers did not have.
The judge heard conflicting testimony in an earlier hearing on why Marquette and the two other officers, Joey Williams and Christopher Mukadam, were in the first place at Perkins’ home.
Marquette, Mukadam and Williams were sent to help combs after Perkins pointed a gun at his chest when the driver of the trailer first tried to take Perkins’ vehicle, according to Williams and Mukadam’s testimony. Combs met the officers at a nearby tow garden.
Combs waited for the three officers to set up secrets around the House of Perkins before Combs ‘returned for a second time to the backlash of Perkins’ vehicle. All three officers were deliberately hidden from the front door of Perkins when Combs returned and Perkins came out of his home with his gun and showed it on Combs.
Footage of the body camera revealed that Marquette had dropped off all the bullets in his gun for less than two seconds after he was hiding from Perkins’ house from where he was hiding. Even then, the judge wrote, Marquette was partially obstructed by the bed of Perkins’ truck. Perkins turned to Marquette and briefly tried to move his gun away from the officer before Marquette started shooting, according to Elliott.
Before Combs returned to the House of Perkins, the order said the officers should have said that Combs “that he could help one what he wanted with him could help with the return, but it could not be law enforcement without the legal process.”
Both officers who were with Marquette testified that they were there to keep the peace and to “investigate” Perkins because they pulled a gun on Combs, which could be a charge of threat of threat if Combs decided to push on charges.
The state agent investigating the case testified that it was a standard practice for officers to accompany people to maintain the order. But he also said that ‘visibility’ is typically needed to maintain the peace, and that the way the officers were set up was ‘unusual’ for investigating threat because it is a method that is usually ‘used for an active crime scene’.
Because there was no active crime scene when the officers arrived, Elliott ruled that Marquette ‘acted outside the scope of his authority’ to investigate an imminent allegation ‘and therefore was an offender “when he waited outside Perkins House.
Elliott said the jury would have to decide whether Marquette was at Perkins’ home to keep the peace.
Based on the determination, the ruling read will have to decide whether it means that Marquette acted within the scope of his responsibilities as police officer, and whether a ‘reasonable’ officer would have killed Perkins in the same situation.
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Riddle is a Corps member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non -profit national service program that places journalists in local news rooms to report on national issues.
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