Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Manslaughter charges against seven Oklahoma police officers involved in three fatal shootings have been dropped, officials announced on Friday.
All of the incidents occurred in 2020. In one of the cases, five officers had been charged in the deadly shooting of a 15-year-old robbery suspect.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said her office has decided to dismiss the charges after a team of attorneys spent “hundreds of hours” reviewing the cases.
“This is not just a quick spur-of-the-moment decision. This was a very difficult, very fact-intensive decision and review,” Behenna told reporters during a press briefing.
ABC News reports that one of the shootings occurred in The Village, Oklahoma, in July 2020. Cpl. Chance Avery, an officer with the Village Police Department, was charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree murder after he shot and killed 49-year-old Christopher Poor during a domestic incident inside Poor’s home. Body camera footage showed Avery repeatedly telling Poor to drop a bat, then firing as Poor advanced toward him.
The other two incidents occurred in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City Police Department
Five Oklahoma City Police Department officers were charged with first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez in November 2020 — Corey Adams; Jared Barton; Bradley Pemberton; Bethany Sears; and John Skuta.
The officers had responded to a report of an armed robbery at a gas station. Security camera footage released by the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office in the wake of the shooting showed Rodriguez emerge from the convenience store building as officers yelled for him to show his hands, lay on the ground and drop his firearm. Rodriguez could be seen dropping a gun on the ground and reaching toward his back pocket before the officers opened fire.
Another Oklahoma City police officer — Sgt. Clifford Holman — was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 60-year-old Bennie Edwards in December 2020. During a confrontation with officers, Edwards, who had a history of mental illness, refused to drop a knife and was running away when he was shot in the back, officials said.
Dr. Travis Yates, author of ‘The Courageous Police Leader‘ and former police commander calls what has happened to the officers a horrific injustice.
“The charging of these officers during the political chaos of 2020 was nothing more than weakness at the highest level,” Yates said.
Yates told us that it doesn’t take a team of attorneys and hundreds of hours to look at the basic facts of the cases to determine that they were squarely within existing case law.
Yates said that the arrest and public shaming of these officers will haunt them and their families for the rest of their lives and he calls on police leaders across the country to demand fairness and equity when police officers are treated in this fashion.
