CMPD Engages Community As Kerrick Trial Gets Underway

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CHARLOTTE, NC — Opening statements are set for Monday in the trial of CMPD Officer Wes Kerrick, accused of involuntary manslaughter in the 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell.

WCCB Charlotte anchor Morgan Fogarty has a look at how police have prepared for the trial.

“We’re trying to prepare for the best outcome throughout the city and how the city is gonna handle this.”

Longtime CMPD Detective Garry McFadden spent the past several months doing one crucial thing he says Baltimore and Ferguson failed to: talking to young black men.

“Have we given them a chair at the table?  Not really.  Have we listened to their views, their comments, their concerns, their criticisms?  Not really,” he says.

It’s been widely reported that in Baltimore, school-aged kids used social media to organize some of April’s riots.  Before Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools let out for the summer, McFadden went into classrooms to build bridges.

“I think it’s just the communication of explaining what our job really is, because we are a job that everybody believes that they know our job,” he says.

Still, McFadden expects there will be peaceful protests over the course of the Kerrick trial, and he wants protesters to seek out police, rather than avoid them.

“We’re not saying ‘don’t do that.’  We’re saying if you’re gonna plan it, allow us to help you plan some so that it’ll be a safe march.”

This is also the first major event where CMPD’s new body cameras will be tested.  Former Chief Rodney Monroe said he would decide who sees the footage.  We asked McFadden if he thought the public should see the video if the cameras capture an incident during the course of the trial.

“If it is of significance and brings a better understanding and better clarity of it, I think that we will present that,” he says.