No charges for SC man who gunned down unarmed teen on sight
On Monday, police in North Charleston, South Carolina, said that they would not pursue charges for the man who shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old.
Quadarrel Lamont Morton, 24, shot and killed Derrick Grant on January 17 a day after he told police that his girlfriend’s car had been stolen. The Hyundai sedan later showed up near where Morton lived with his girlfriend, and Morton went outside armed with a gun.
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Morton said after the incident that he had seen someone go into the car with a key and that he called out to the person to stop.
“He reached for something. I fired once,” Morton told a dispatcher. “I saw him reach again. I fired one more time.”
However, North Charleston Police Department spokesman Spencer Pryor confirmed that Grant didn’t have a weapon, and none was found near the scene.
It is not clear why Grant was near the car, and Grant and Morton have no connections, according to police. But since no witnesses clearly saw what happened, police have had to rely on Morton’s account of what happened.
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No charges
Ultimately, police determined that Morton was within his rights to use deadly force in self-defense, under “stand your ground”-style laws.
“The death of (Derrick Grant) is a tragedy for his family and for this community,” the police said, according to The Post and Courier. “We have determined that this incident, however tragic, is not reasonably prosecutable under the law.”
But Grant’s family is still calling for answers, especially questioning why Morton went out to confront Grant with a gun instead of calling the police.
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“It’s tragic that this individual didn’t do what most citizens do: You call the police and wait,” said attorney Mark Peper, who is representing Grant’s family. “You don’t pack heat and go out and hold the guy at gunpoint. That’s not sitting well with the family.”
“The only things we’re left with are the facts supplied to law enforcement, and if those facts are true, they say it’s justified,” Peper said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever know what truly happened.”
