Douglas County Attorney calls death 'senseless, but justified', no charges in shooting of protester

KETV ^ | June 2, 2020 | KETV

[Morgana]

OMAHA, Neb. —

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced Monday that there would be no charges against Jake Gardner in the shooting death of 22-year-old James Scurlock, a black man who was killed amid protests in the Old Market Saturday night.

"Douglas County is a community of people I truly love. And I've been very proud of and very proud to serve as the county attorney in this this great county that we live in," he began his remarks.

Kleine said the death of Scurlock was "senseless," because the situation stemmed from what was meant to be peaceful protests.

Kleine said the determination has been made that the shooting was in self-defense. He said that there is video evidence that he wants the public to see and that the decision that has been made is based on all of the information the office has currently.

"The other thing I would ask if there is any other evidence that people are aware of other videos. Other witnesses. Anything else that would guide us or help us in decision making process, we would still like that, to come forward because I'm going to talk to you about the decision we've made it based at this point in time," he said.

[sport]

It was senseless because the man was trying to take for his own another man' property. It was justified because the man had to defend his life and property. He met his demise because he was attacking a man with a gun to deprive him of his rightful property. If the decedent's family had taught him to keep his hands off other people's property, they might still have him.

His father said that he went out to protest racism. His idea of protesting racism was to take someone's property. That did not work out for him. The D.A. made the correct call.

[GOP Congress]

No, I wasn’t arguing against you. I was just clarifying the justification that most rational people feel, and unfortunately many LE people justify the wrong people. But I do agree, the article is not straightforward and caused some of the confusion, perhaps intentionally so. You are 100% correct.

Good night!

[Jamestown1630]

Again: your definition of the aggression as ‘senseless’ is correct; and your definition of ‘justified’ is again correct.

But the title of the ARTICLE doesn’t convey that sense.

(jeez, i’m tired.)

[RJS1950]

I live in the local area and I listened to the press conference and read the local reports. They were not begging for any new evidence.

[sport]

I understand. I was going from memory. I read a different perspective on it last night. More details were given . Still one has to draw on one’s imagination. To say the least, the story leaves much to be desired. A poor to very poorly written article.

[funfan]

This is the part that made me say what I did:

“The other thing I would ask if there is any other evidence that people are aware of other videos. Other witnesses. Anything else that would guide us or help us in decision making process, we would still like that, to come forward because I’m going to talk to you about the decision we’ve made it based at this point in time,” he said.

Maybe I am just hypersensitive and am reading something more into than there is.

[Newbomb Turk]

Building owner just evicted Mr. Gardner’s businesses from the building for supposedly violating the terms of his lease. Gardner should have let those protesters torch the place which would have burned down the whole block.

[TalBlack]

My brain is doing flip-flops over the notion of ‘senseless but justified’.

Most or all of the warriors I’ve ever read, no matter how gung-ho commented at some point on the senselessness of war. The sheer waste of human life.

[TalBlack]

Wow, there are many levels of senseless here. Anybody who is still in position to be hit by a bullet AFTER two warning shots...well...

[Nateman]

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Ms. Melendez should be charged with “accessory before the fact” to “murder” (in this case, self defense from being murdered) since her attacking the gun-owner from behind and possibly forcing him down into a life/death position, made the shooting necessary.

Charge her and use her own words against her before a grand jury. Adios puta!

[kaehurowing]

So the guy joined the Trayvon Martin Fan Club.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Never bring a chokehold to a gunfight.

[liberalh8ter]

When the presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee advocates for police to only shoot people in the leg when encountering an “unarmed person with a knife”, statements like “senseless but justified” soon follow.

[RJS1950]

Hearing the statement in full context, he was preempting any of the thug supporting crowd from being able to say they didn’t consider all of the evidence. That’s the way I took it.