The Hoover Police Department officer who shot and killed E.J. Bradford, Jr. at the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving has been found legally “justified” in his actions by the State of Alabama.
Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office made the official announcement Tuesday, concluding over two months of investigation by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Marshall’s office took over prosecutorial jurisdiction of the case in December.
The announcement included a release of video footage of the shooting, which Bradford’s family members and protesters have asked for throughout the investigation.
The officer “did not commit a crime under Alabama law and thus will not be criminally charged for his actions,” according to a press release from Marshall’s office.
“The Attorney General further noted that it was his understanding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had reviewed the matter and found no evidence to initiate a case against the officer for civil rights violation(s),” the release added.
Governor Kay Ivey has previously expressed her confidence in SBI’s ability to handle the investigation.
The officer’s name has not been released and was redacted from the publicly available version of the attorney general’s case report.
The attorney general’s report concluded, “Officer 1 reasonably exercised his official duties, powers, or functions when he shot E.J. Bradford on the night of November 22, 2018. Accordingly, Alabama law declares his action ‘justified and not criminal.’ Ala. Code § 13A-3-22. Because Officer 1 did not commit a crime under Alabama law, Rule 3.8(1)(a) of the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct dictates that the Attorney General ‘shall refrain’ from seeking criminal charges against Officer 1.”
The report also said that “it is reasonable to conclude that both [Bradford and Erron Brown] presented an immediate deadly threat to innocent civilians and first responders inside the Galleria.”
The full report on Bradford’s death is available here.
The video footage of the shooting follows (WARNING – graphic content):
Update 1:00 p.m.:
The case report also explains that the officer did not fire the bullet that struck a 12-year-old girl at the scene. Brown is the only other individual found to have fired shots at the scene; since he is facing pending criminal charges, the report could not go into details exclusively about his role in the incident. Bradford did not fire his weapon but had chambered a bullet before being fatally wounded.
The City of Hoover has received the report from the Office of the Alabama Attorney General regarding the officer involved shooting on the night of November 22, 2018. The City of Hoover will release a statement in response to that report Wednesday, February 6, 2019.
— City of Hoover (@CityofHoover) February 5, 2019
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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