Judge rejects murder and attempted murder charges for Honolulu officers in fatal shooting of 16-year-old
CBSN
A Hawaii judge on Wednesday rejected murder and attempted murder charges against three Honolulu police officers in the fatal shooting of a teenager, preventing the case from going to trial.
District Court Judge William Domingo, in a ruling from the bench, said there was no probable cause that the officers committed the crimes they were accused of. The ruling came after witness testimony wrapped up in a month-long preliminary hearing to determine whether probable cause existed to move the case forward, reports CBS station KGMB. Domingo noted the teenager, 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap, led the officers on a high-speed chase immediately before the April 5 shooting, refusing commands to stop. He said the incident only ended after Sykap was shot and the car fell into a canal. Body camera video obtained by the station showed Officer Geoffrey Thom firing 10 rounds at Sykap from behind the vehicle through the rear window after it stopped at an intersection. Domingo agreed with defense attorneys that officers who fired into the car while positioned on foot outside it were in danger when the vehicle once again started to move, reports KGMB.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.