FILE - In this Nov. 27, 2018, file frame from video, April Pipkins holds a photograph of her deceased son, Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr., during an interview in Birmingham, Ala. A police officer will not face charges for killing Bradford Jr, a man he mistook for the gunman in an Alabama mall shooting on Thanksgiving night. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, that he concluded the officer did not break the law and won’t be charged in the death. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)
February 07, 2019 - 9:57 AM
HOOVER, Ala. - The Alabama NAACP is criticizing the state's decision not to prosecute a police officer who killed a black man in a case of mistaken identity.
A statement from the civil rights organization says Attorney General Steve Marshall's decision essentially tells Alabama's black residents their lives don't matter.
And the Alabama president of the NAACP, Bernard Simelton, says the state is denying justice for relatives of Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr.
The state's investigation determined that the police officer in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover was justified in shooting Bradford because Bradford carried a weapon and appeared to pose a threat.
The officer mistook Bradford for the man responsible for gunfire that erupted moments earlier in the shopping mall on Thanksgiving night.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019