Kent County will not prosecute officer in Da’Quain Johnson shooting

Chris Becker, the Kent County prosecutor, said in a news conference on Thursday that he found no evidence that the force used by a Grand Rapid Police officer against Da’Quain Johnson was unreasonable when the officer fatally shot him during a traffic stop in February.

Becker said that officers had a legitimate basis to pull him over when Johnson was riding on a bicycle in the roadway without a light. He added that officers had reasonable suspicion to follow him and make a traffic stop based on information they received prior to the stop. That information included a tip from a confidential informant that there was a person walking around the city with a firearm.

Becker said his office could not conclude that Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Carlson’s decision to open fire was dishonest and unreasonable, and therefore he was not planning to charge the officer with a crime.

In response, Ven Johnson and Ben Crump, attorneys for the Da’Quain Johnson family, said the decision to not file charges was “deeply disappointing and raises serious questions about accountability.”

“When a life is taken, there must be a thorough and transparent public process to determine what happened and why,” the attorneys said in a joint statement provided to Michigan Advance.

Becker showed three videos during the press conference, the first being an in-car video from one of the patrol cars, where officers can be seen chasing Johnson through Grand Rapids and commanding him to stop, but he did not.

Becker also showed a video from an apartment complex where Grand Rapids police finally apprehended Johnson, which also showed police using a police canine on Johnson to subdue him.

That video also showed, Becker said, Johnson reaching for something, twice, and an officer then approaching, who stomps down on his arm. The officer in the video also yells to his backup that Johnson was “going for something,” but didn’t know what it might be at the time. An item did fall off of his person, Becker said.

The third video was from one of the officer’s body cameras, which Becker said showed the officer exiting the vehicle, gun drawn, then stomping on Johnson’s foot. The officer kept signaling to something in Johnson’s right hand and his arm was bent at a 90-degree angle, indicating to Becker that Johnson was reaching for something. The officer then signals that he allegedly had a gun and was reaching for it.

“The question becomes, is there a gun? Does he have a gun?” Becker said at the news conference. “We did remove the sound from this, but at the end of this video, I think, clearly that shows when we review this, and you can go into it, there is a gun that comes out of his hand at that point in time.”

Becker said that supported the officer’s assumption that he allegedly had a gun on him at that point and was reaching for it.

“There was a gun found next to him,” Becker said.

Officers were also heard and seen multiple times warning Johnson to stop reaching for the item in question or else he would be shot. One of the officers is also seen holstering his weapon prior to warnings about Johnson having a gun and before Johnson was eventually shot.

“It was a horrific video, but I have to apply the facts to the law when we argue this to a jury. What are the elements of second-degree murder?” Becker said. “There was a death caused by the defendant, Officer Carlson, and the defendant had a state of mind, intent to kill and intent to do great bodily harm. I have to say they’re, you know, shooting somebody in the back. And this is clearly, this was in the back. The two shots were in the shoulder and the shoulder blade. It was not in the back of the head. There were two shots that went through the shoulder. One of them went through, actually, the spinal cord, which was a fatal shot. They shot him in the back.”

Becker said he has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that shooting was not justifiable or excused due to self defense of the person firing the shot or others.

“He was armed with a dangerous weapon,” Becker reiterated. “He’s got a gun in his hand and we’ve seen the gun. … The gun comes out of his hand and it is a loaded gun.”

Becker further argued that there was no necessity under the law to require that a gun be pointed at an individual to effectuate a self defense argument in court.

“Is it reasonable under the totality of the circumstances? He fought, he never said anything, that’s one of the more important things,” Becker said. “He never said, ‘I surrender. I’m getting up. I’m dropping the gun.’ … It’s underneath him. How do they know if it’s dropping or not? They never had enough time to see that, but he never said, ‘I’m surrendering.’”

That may have changed things if Johnson said that, Becker added, but he never did, according to the video shown Thursday.

Since Da’Quain’s shooting on Feb. 18, his family and community members, as well as both lawyers for the family, have disputed the police narrative that he was reaching for a gun or pointing it towards the police officers when he was shot three times in the back.

Ven Johnson and Crump said that they would continue their own independent investigation into the shooting and “will work to ensure the full truth comes to light.”

“The Johnson family deserves answers, and we intend to help them get those answers,” the attorneys said Thursday.

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This article, “Kent County will not prosecute officer in Da’Quain Johnson shooting,” has been republished from the Michigan Advance under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.