Article from Reason by Joe Setyon.

A white Nashville police officer, accused of fatally shooting a black man in the back as he fled, was charged yesterday with criminal homicide.

Daniel Hambrick, 25, sustained three gunshot wounds on July 26: two in his back and one in the back of his head. His alleged killer, Metropolitan Nashville Police Officer Andrew Delke, turned himself in to the authorities yesterday before being released on $25,000 bond. At first, Night Court Magistrate Evan Harris said there wasn’t evidence to charge him. But Judge Michael Mondelli of the local General Sessions Court eventually signed off on the criminal charge.

Hambrick’s death has renewed the debate over police culpability in controversial, officer-involved fatal shootings. Nationally, it’s rare for such officers to face criminal charges. In the Nashville area, particularly when the officers in question were on duty, it’s almost unheard of.

Delke’s arrest warrant describes what happened in the lead-up to the shooting. Delke, a member of a stolen vehicles task force, was on patrol when he encountered a Chevrolet Impala at an intersection. Both Delke and the Impala had stopped at stop signs, but the Impala “conceded the right of way by not pulling in front of him,” the warrant says.

Read the entire article from Reason.

Image Credit: By Jamelle Bouie [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons