Boy Who Called 911 for Help But Was Shot Instead by Officer Speaks Out, "Big Punch to the Chest"
Child asks what he did wrong to get shot by police at his home.
A child who was trying to protect his mother and family called the police pleading for help in a domestic disturbance but was shot by the responding officer. Aderrien Murry was unarmed and shot in the chest by an Indianola cop when he arrived at the boy's Mississippi home, and the family is demanding to know why. The 11-year-old was rushed to the hospital, suffered severe injuries, and almost died. Read on to discover further insights into the event, as recounted by both the mother and Aderrien himself.
The incident happened on May 20th when Aderrien's mother, Nakala Murry, asked her son to call the police. She told CNN, the father of another of her children showed up at their home at 4:00 a.m. "irate." She managed to sneak a cell phone to Aderrien, who dialed 911.
Murry said that when the responding officer arrived at their home, he "had his gun drawn at the front door and asked those inside the home to come outside."
She explained that when her son was complying and walked around the corner of the hallway into the living room, he was shot.
Aderrien was trying to make his way outside as the officer asked. "Once he came from around the corner, he got shot," Murry said. "I cannot grasp why. The same cop that told him to come out of the house. (Aderrien) did, and he got shot. He kept asking, 'Why did he shoot me? What did I do wrong?' she said.
"I came out doing this," he exclaimed, lifting his arms, as he recounted in an interview with ABC News. "It felt like a taser, like a big punch to the chest." "I was bleeding, bleeding from my mouth. Then I would just remember singing a song," he shared.
When inquired about the song he was singing, Aderrien responded, "No weapon formed against me prosper shall," alluding to the Bible verse from Isaiah 54:17: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."
Murry stated that after Aderrien was shot, she applied pressure to his chest and "sang gospel songs and prayed while bleeding out." She said the officer who shot her son tried to help and placed his hand on her to stop the bleeding. When paramedics came, they were "very attentive," she said.
Aderrien is now home from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he was treated, and is recovering. "Aderrien came within an inch of losing his life," Carlos Moore, the family's attorney, told CNN. "It's not OK for a cop to do this and get away with this. The mother asked Aderrien to call the police on her daughter's father. He walked out of his room as directed by the police and he got shot."
According to the outlet, Aderrien suffered a collapsed lung, fractured ribs, and a lacerated liver. He was placed on a ventilator, and given a chest tube.
The incident was captured on footage by the officer's body cam, but it won't be released, according to Moore. He told CNN that when he requested the footage, he was denied due to "an ongoing investigation."
"There's no justification for what this officer did," Moore told The Washington Post. "Aderrien came within an inch of losing his life over the officer's reckless actions."
Murry said two other children were in the house at the time of the shooting, including Murry's daughter and 2-year-old nephew. She told CNN police informed her that her daughter's father was taken into custody but released because she had not filed a police report against him.
"When was I going to have time to do that? I was in the hospital with my son," she said.
The officer involved in the shooting is named Greg Capers, and the Indianola Police Department confirmed that information with CNN. The Indianola Board of Aldermen placed the officer on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, according to the family attorney.
The MBI said the agency is "currently assessing this critical incident and gathering evidence" and would turn over its findings to the state attorney general's office after the investigation is complete.