NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A grand jury in Tennessee indicted a white police officer on a charge of first-degree murder for killing an armed black man who ran when he saw police, according to a Friday news release from the Nashville district attorney’s office.
An arrest affidavit said Nashville officer Andrew Delke, 25, pulled into an apartment parking lot after seeing a car he mistook for one he had been following. Hambrick, also 25, was in the area at the time and began to run. Part of the chase and the shooting were caught on video.
The case sparked an outcry that led to a November referendum approving the creation of a citizen oversight board for Nashville’s police force.
Delke’s attorney David Raybin said in an email on Friday that he will enter a plea of not guilty to the charges. He reiterated his argument that Delke “acted in accordance with his training and Tennessee law in response to an armed suspect who ignored repeated orders to drop his gun.”
Delke shot Hambrick in the back, torso and the back of his head.
District Attorney General Glenn Funk has argued that Delke had alternatives, adding the officer could have stopped, sought cover and called for help.
Prosecutors have also pointed to the lack of video footage or witness testimony about Hambrick turning, looking back or aiming his weapon at Delke, as Delke claimed in his interview with a state investigator.
An attorney for Hambrick’s family did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.
