NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A prosecutor secured a warrant Thursday to charge a white Tennessee police officer with criminal homicide after surveillance footage appeared to show him chasing a black man and opening fire as the man fled from the officer in July.
Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said in a statement that he requested a warrant Thursday to charge officer Andrew Delke in the death of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick. A General Sessions judge found probable cause and signed Delke’s arrest warrant Thursday after a magistrate judge ruled earlier Thursday that there wasn’t enough evidence, The Tennessean reported .
Surveillance video from a nearby school shows the 25-year-old officer chased and shot Hambrick on July 26 as Hambrick ran away on a sidewalk near an apartment complex. Authorities say the incident began with a traffic stop and Hambrick had a gun.
Funk said filing the homicide charge in General Sessions court lets the case be presented in open court as transparently as possible, since grand jury proceedings are secret.
Nashville Mayor David Briley, who announced a comprehensive review of policing procedures when the video was released publicly last month, said he fully supports the police, but officers have to account for their actions when they have been accused of misconduct. He said there must be laws that are “fairly, equally and transparently applied.”
“In August, I spoke with Daniel Hambrick’s mother to express my condolences for her loss,” the mayor said in a statement. “I assured her that we would show respect for the life of her son, because his life mattered. At that time, Ms. Hambrick asked for justice for Daniel. The District Attorney’s decision to file charges in this case is a necessary step toward that end.”
American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg called Delke’s arrest a “crucial first step in setting the wheels of accountability and justice in motion,” while cautioning that Delke must receive due process during proceedings.
“The arrest in and of itself sends an important – yet all too rare – message to the community that nobody is above the law,” Weinberg said in a statement.
The release of the video in August prompted demands from the Nashville NAACP that Delke be fired and charged with murder, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation open up a civil rights probe and a review of the Nashville Police Department.
In August, Nashville Fraternal Order of Police President James Smallwood criticized the release of the video before the investigation was completed, and said that if Hambrick dropped a pistol he was holding as ordered, he’s confident Hambrick would still be alive.