NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Federal officials on Friday agreed with a state decision not to prosecute a white Tennessee police officer who fatally shot a black man after a traffic stop.
A U.S. Attorney’s Office statement said it worked with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice in reviewing investigations by the Nashville Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and determined that no further action or investigation of the fatal shooting of 31-year-old Jocques Clemmons is warranted.
The announcement bolsters the decision in May by Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk not to seek charges against Officer Josh Lippert. But it frustrates African-Americans in the city, where the NAACP, some clergy, Clemmons’ family and other community members have challenged the official investigations.
“I think they violated his civil rights, for a man to be shot down like a dog, be shot down in the back, and shot multiple times,” said Ludye Wallace, president of the NAACP’s Nashville chapter.
But Funk said the officer’s actions met the legal definition of self-defense, and that a witness backed the officer’s statement that Clemmons carried a gun during the confrontation in February.