A federal jury found a white Columbus police officer who shot and killed a 13-year-old Black boy in 2016 did not violate the teen's rights.
Tyre King was shot and killed in 2016 by Bryan Mason, who was looking for a different person who was a suspect in a robbery. Police say King had a realistic looking BB gun when Mason encountered him.
King's family argued in the civil suit that his death was the result of excessive force and racial discrimination.
Mason claimed he feared for his life and acted reasonably by shooting the boy.
The federal jury found Mason did not violate King's constitutional right to be free from excessive force and that Mason did not act recklessly.
A Franklin County grand jury declined to press criminal charges against Mason.
King's grandmother Dearrea King filed the federal civil suit in 2018 in U.S. District Court in Columbus.
The trial began Jan.17 and the jury returned a verdict on Wednesday.
The judge granted some of Mason's requests to exclude some of the testimony from the plaintiff's expert witness Melvin Tucker, including a segment claiming Mason should have taken cover instead of shooting King.
"Accepting Officer Bryan Mason’s account as true, his use of deadly force against Tyre King, a 13-year-old Black male, on Sept.14, 2016, was unnecessary and a greater level of force than other officers would have used in 2016, because Officer Mason had cover and concealment readily available to him and the opportunity to take that cover and concealment instead of resorting to deadly force. Officer Mason ignored the 'option' of cover and concealment available to him and shot Tyre King," was a passage included in the written testimony that Tucker was not permitted to give in court.
The judge also excluded the following testimony from Tucker regarding Mason's past incidents of using force against others.
"In the seven-year period before the shooting death of Tyre King on Sept. 14, 2016, Mason had been involved in 47 reports involving use of force and 25 of the use of force incidents resulted in civilians requiring medical attention. During the time period from 2006 to 2016, Mason had been involved in four cases involving deadly force," according to court records.
Mason still works as a Columbus police officer. He is currently a sergeant.
