Cop Won't Be Indicted After Shooting Boy, 11

UPDATE Dec 15, 2023 1:30 AM CST

A grand jury has declined to indict the Mississippi police officer who shot and wounded an 11-year-old boy after responding to a 911 call the boy had placed. A lawyer for Aderrien Murry's family says the family will now seek justice via a federal civil lawsuit, since they continue to believe the shooting, which left the boy hospitalized for five days, was not justified. Indianola Police Sgt. Greg Capers has been on unpaid administrative leave since June, the AP reports. No further criminal action will be taken against him at the state level, but he cannot return to work and be paid until the Indianola Board of Aldermen votes to end his leave.

May 30, 2023 12:39 PM CDT

A Mississippi boy shot by a police officer after he'd called 911 is now speaking out. Aderrien Murry's interview with Good Morning America and GMA3 aired Tuesday; in it, the 11-year-old described how it felt to be shot in his Indianola home in the early morning hours of May 20. "It felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest," Aderrien said. He noted he was "bleeding from my mouth," and that he recalled singing a song to himself as he ran outside to his mother, Nakala Murry.

That song, per Aderrien: "No weapon formed against me—prosper shall," which ABC News notes is inspired by a biblical verse. Murry says she asked her son to call for help after spotting an "irate" ex-boyfriend standing outside of their home at around 4am. She says Aderrien first called 911, then his grandmother, who dialed the police herself. Greg Capers, the officer who showed up at the home and fired the shot that hit Aderrien, has been suspended. Meanwhile, the family's attorney, Carlos Moore, tells the Independent it's been difficult retrieving information from city officials on what transpired.

story continues below

"I think they shot first and asked questions second," Moore says. "There's no way a trained officer should have feared for his life when an 11-year-old boy approaches with no weapon in his hands." Moore adds that Aderrien—who was released from the hospital and is recovering at home after suffering a collapsed lung, lacerated liver, and broken ribs—is doing "as well as can be expected," but that the boy is now "fearful of the police." The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is continuing its probe of the shooting and will share its findings with the state's attorney general, per NPR. "This can't keep happening," Aderrien's mother said at a press conference last week, per the New York Times. "My baby almost lost his life." (More police shooting stories.)