*A Paterson, New Jersey police officer has been criminally charged for shooting an unarmed Black man in the back last year — paralyzing him.
The victim, Khalif Cooper, 28, was reportedly running from gunfire when he was spotted by Officer Jerry Moravek, 40, who was investigating a disturbance that night, New Jersey Monitor reports. When gun shots erupted, a small crowd that had gathered in the street quickly dispersed. Cooper is seen on Moravek’s body camera footage running past him. This prompted a brief chase during which Moravek shouted at Cooper repeatedly to drop his gun.
Attorney General Matt Platkin said Moravek never ordered Cooper to stop running nor did he warn him that he would open fire. Instead, he shot at Cooper twice, hitting him once in the back.
Cooper has reportedly been left with bullet fragments in his spine and he’s unable to walk.
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The June 11 shooting, according to Platkin, “violated the state’s use of force policies, which allow officers to use deadly force only to protect themselves or the public from imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury,” per New Jersey Monitor.
“The victim was never ever told to stop running,” Platkin said. “He was not warned that deadly force might be used.”
Officer Moravek has been charged with second-degree aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and second-degree official misconduct, per the report.
As The Daily Voice reports, Defense attorney Patrick Caserta issued a statement Monday defending Moravek. Caserta claims his client “believed his life and the life of other people in the street was at risk.”
According to Caserta, Moravek “believed at that split-second that the person he was chasing was turning to fire that handgun at him and he realized that if he missed, the bullets could strike anyone nearby.”
Caserta added, “He made that split-second decision and fired his weapon.”
But Platkin noted that “The body-worn camera footage does not depict the victim brandishing any firearm or pointing a firearm at the defendant, other officers or any member of the public.”
“Under the law, discharging a firearm is meant to be a last resort, used by officers when they or the public face an imminent threat of death or serious injury,” OPIA Executive Director Thomas Eicher noted. “That just wasn’t the situation here.”
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