The governing board of a small town in the Mississippi Delta has voted to reinstate a police officer who was suspended after he shot an 11-year-old Black boy who had called police to his home earlier this year to help resolve a domestic dispute involving his mother.
During a special session, the city of Indianola Board of Aldermen voted 4-1 to clear the way for Sgt. Greg Capers, who is Black, to return to duty more than seven months after he claims he accidentally fired his service weapon when he seriously wounded Aderrien Murry in the chest.
Three members of the Board of Aldermen are Black, and two are white, while Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone is also Black.
Immediately after the May 20 shooting, Capers was placed on paid administrative leave, but a month later, the board voted 4-1 to suspend Capers without pay, pending the outcome of an internal affairs probe and a grand jury investigation, which ended last week with no criminal charges against Capers.
The Dec. 21 reinstatement became effective immediately, according to attorney Michael Carr, who represented Capers during the inquiry on behalf of the Mississippi division of the Police Benevolent Association.
“Capers is glad for the reinstatement and ready to get back to work,” Carr told CNN the day after the vote, adding that Capers would remain a sergeant once he was back on the job.
The board also voted to prohibit the release of police bodycam footage of the incident, leading to criticism over the board’s lack of transparency in the majority-Black Southern town.
Previously, Murry family attorney Carlos Moore said he filed a motion to reverse the board’s decision to suppress the videos.
According to Moore, Capers is also responsible for another instance of misconduct involving an incident in December 2022 in which Capers allegedly used a Taser on a handcuffed suspect.
Meanwhile, Aderrien and his family attended the meeting, and as the board voted to reinstate Capers, a surge of emotions overcame the boy, and he had to be taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“Aderrien Murry suffered an anxiety attack during the meeting, which resulted in him bleeding from his mouth and nose,” Moore said in a statement to CNN. “This unfortunate incident only underscores the deep, ongoing trauma that Aderrien and his family are experiencing.”
Immediately after the shooting, the Murry family sued the city of Indianola, Police Chief Ronald Sampson, and several officers, including Capers, seeking $5 million in damages for multiple claims, including excessive force, negligence, reckless endangerment, and civil assault and battery.
The city filed a motion on Dec. 5 urging the judge to dismiss the legal claim, arguing that Capers and the police chief “are entitled to qualified immunity because the allegations amount to no more than an unintentional shooting where an officer reasonably reacted to a potentially dangerous situation and threat of serious harm.”
Additionally, the city argued that the Murrys failed to demonstrate a breach of the Fourth Amendment as Capers’ actions were unintentional and because the officers were not informed by dispatchers about the presence of children at the home.
According to court documents, officers had been to the residence dozens of times in response to “violent and sometimes armed disputes” between Nakala Murry and the father of one of her children.
On the day of the shooting, Aderrien’s mother instructed her son to call police after the adult male showed up at the home in the middle of the night acting “irate.”
Capers showed up with his gun already drawn and ordered the occupants of the home to come outside as several other officers kicked open the front door.
Nakala Murry said Aderrien followed the officer’s orders to come out, but as he rounded a corner into the living room, Capers opened fire from outside the door, hitting the unarmed boy in the chest.
“His words to me were, ‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do wrong?’ Then he just started crying,” Murry said during a May 22 press conference. “He ran to me. He was bleeding. I held him. I held his wound. He bled out the mouth. Every time I close my eyes, I see it.”
Aderrien sustained a collapsed lung, fractured ribs, and a lacerated liver; he had to be placed on a ventilator but ultimately survived.
