CHARLOTTE — Now it’s Charlotte’s turn in an unwanted spotlight. The story is familiar – white police officer, unarmed black man, a shooting and the one without the gun dead in the street. Loved ones grieve, a mother holds a Winnie the Pooh doll from a childhood not too many years past and protesters demand action.
Charlotte is not Ferguson, Mo., or New York City – not this time. Randall Kerrick, the 28-year-old officer who killed 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell in September 2013, was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter. And now the public waits for a resolution. Kerrick made his first, brief court appearance on Thursday. The next is scheduled for early next year – this will take a while.