A week after the shooting, Mayor Muriel Bowser released video footage of the incident.
A D.C. police officer will not be charged for fatally shooting a man in the District on Christmas Day of 2016, according to a release from the U.S. District Attorney for D.C.
Officials announced today that there is “insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights or District of Columbia charges” in the death of Gerald Javon Hall, whose family disputed police’s claim that he was carrying a weapon when he was shot and killed outside of his girlfriend’s home.
The attorney’s office and the Metropolitan Police Department investigated the incident over the past several months. According to police evidence, officers came to the home in the 3200 block of Walnut Street NE in response to a domestic disturbance between 29-year-old Hall, his girlfriend, and her sister.
Police said that the sister called police around 11:22 a.m. and said “my sister is locked in the house. Her boyfriend is crazy. He got a knife. He turned on the gas and I’m locked out,” according to the release. Officials say a neighbor also called police and said, “he is beating her up!”
When police arrived on the scene, the neighbor’s son, who was leaving the house, told the officer that Hall had a knife, according to the release. The officer reported looking through the door and seeing Hall standing near his girlfriend “holding a large knife,” which they ordered him to put down.
Hall pushed his girlfriend out of the door and closed it, then opened it again seconds later. The officer then fired four times at Hall, who police say was still holding the knife. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The police officers at the scene were wearing body cameras at the time of the incident. After viewing the footage, Hall’s family alleged that he was unarmed when he was killed, and they demanded that officials release the video publicly.
About a week later, Mayor Muriel Bowser released video footage, which showed the scene unfold. In the videos, Hall’s knife was not visibly clear, as his family said. In response, Bowser’s administration shared screenshots that appeared to show the knife that officers say Hall was carrying during the quick encounter.
After an independent review of the evidence, federal prosecutors found insufficient evidence “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the officer used excessive force under the circumstances. They determined, instead, that the officer defending himself and others.
