CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte community came together to remember Jonathan Ferrell. Monday marked seven years since he was shot and killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer.
A group met in Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte, remembering Ferrell by lighting candles and writing messages with sidewalk chalk.
In September 2013, Jonathan Ferrell had wrecked his car in Charlotte around 2:30 a.m. He went for help, knocking on a woman’s door. She mistook him for a robber and called 911.
When police arrived, they said Ferrell lunged at them. Police shot him 10 times, killing him. His loved ones have said he ran toward officers, not lunged. Ferrell was unarmed.
A jury deadlocked, and the officer was set free — the city of Charlotte paid the Ferrell family more than $2 million, and people in Charlotte protested for days.
"We've seen so many shootings here and nothing's really changed and we have a police chief a new police chief that says he wants things to change," one person in attendance at the 2020 memorial said. "I don't understand why it's taking so long."
