By The Associated Press
The Mississippi attorney general said May 28 that a manslaughter charge will be dropped against a white former police officer in the October 2015 shooting death of an African-American man because her office reviewed the case and concluded the officer acted in self-defense.
Her office said in a statement May 28 to WCBI-TV that it reviewed thousands of documents in the case and concluded there was not evidence to prosecute the former officer, Canyon Boykin.
“In fact, all evidence, including forensics and the sworn statements of four separate MBI investigators, points to necessary self-defense,” said Fitch’s statement, which did not mention the race of Boykin or Ball.
The attorney general at the time, Democrat Jim Hood, presented the case to a grand jury that indicted Boykin on a manslaughter charge in 2016, and Boykin soon pleaded not guilty.
Boykin’s attorney Jim Waide said in a statement May 28: “There was absolutely no evidence it was anything but self-defense.
