by Aisha Davis


In March 2012, Rekia Boyd was killed by off-duty Chicago police officer Dante Servin. Officer Servin thought that Rekia and her friends were being too loud while they walked to a store. After exchanging words, Officer Servin shot over his shoulder, hitting Rekia in the back of the head.

On Monday, a judge found Dante Servin not guilty on charges of shooting and killing Rekia Boyd.

According to The Chicago Sun Times, Judge Dennis Porter granted the defense a motion for a directed verdict allowing Servin to bypass having to put on a defense.

Servin had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and reckless discharge of a firearm — but Porter, in issuing his verdict, said Servin’s conduct was “beyond reckless” in the March 2012 shooting of Rekia Boyd. Therefore, “it would be improper to allow the trial to continue given the total failure” to prove recklessness, which was key to all three charges. “The evidence does not support the charges on which the defendant is being tried.”

Porter seemed to know his decision would be controversial.The officer’s decision to discharge his firearm, Porter said, “was an intentional act.”

“This is not a place for emotion,” he said before reading his verdict. “This is a place for reasoned decisions.”

Servin, an off-duty Chicago Police detective, fatally shot Boyd, 22, in March 2012. He also injured her friend Antonio Cross after confronting them and two others during a gathering held at a local park.




Boyd died after one of the five bullets from Servin’s unregistered handgun pierced the left side of her head. Servin has maintained that shot only because he felt threatened when he confronted the group about the noise.

Boyd’s mother, Angela Helton, received a $4.5 million settlement with the city.

Rekia's brother, Martinez Sutton, spoke of the verdict outside the court.

REUTERS

A Chicago police officer goes on trial on Thursday on felony charges in the 2012 fatal shooting of a 22-year-old black woman in a case that has drawn attention as the nation debates police use of deadly force, especially against young black people.

Dante Servin, who is Hispanic, is the first Chicago police officer in more than 15 years to be charged in a fatal shooting. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and other felonies in the off-duty shooting of Rekia Boyd.

2014 has been marked by massive protests decrying the failure of the justice system to charge officers for killing unarmed black men. And there have been urgent calls for the recognition of black humanity as well as an outpouring of profound sympathy for the mothers and families of those slain men. One wonders whether this amounts to an added layer of trauma for the mothers of murdered black daughters whose deaths don't rate high enough for the nation's outrage or the black community's collective mourning.