Connecticut’s NAACP wants the federal government to review the acquittal of former Hartford police officer Robert Lawlor.
Lawlor was cleared last week in the shooting death of 18-year-old Jashon Bryant when he was acquitted of manslaughter and assault charges.
After the verdict was read on Tuesday, Bryant's grief-stricken family rushed from the courtroom, the Hartford Courant reports. Bryant's mother, Cynthia, almost collapsed outside court.
"A policeman has license to kill black people in our neighborhood and get away with it," Keith Thomas, Bryant's father, said outside court, according to the Courant. "It was my son who got bullets put into him. [Lawlor] should be going to prison."
It got so heated outside the court house that Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez intervened and called for calm in the city. Three churches were open that afternoon for people seeking spiritual guidance or for a place to reflect.
“We are closing a difficult chapter for our City. Families have been devastated but we must come together today as one city, one Hartford,” Perez said in a statement.
The NAACP is concerned that an all-white jury exonerated Lawlor. The organization and Bryant’s family plan to hold a press conference today in front of the federal building on Main Street in Hartford.
“The NAACP, the family of Jashon Bryant, and many in the community believe this was a flawed, racially biased process,” State Conference President Scot X. Esdaile said in a news release. “People have commented that this case put the community on trial, not a former police officer who shot and killed an unarmed young man. We’re asking the Justice Department to review this case and ensure that justice was served.”
Bryant was 18 when he was killed by Lawlor in May 2005. Lawlor said he believed Bryant had a gun, and that he opened fire when Bryant's friend drove his car toward an FBI agent with whom Lawlor was working.
“He just got away with killing my son again,” Bryant’s mother, Cynthia, said. “He killed him two times.”
The verdict came down the day before Jashon’s birthday, his family said.
“I don’t get to say ‘Happy Birthday,’” his sister told Lawlor. She also said she was bothered that the officer never apologized.
Outside the courthouse, Lawlor defended himself and said he took an oath.
“I did nothing wrong,” he said.
Lawyers for the now-retired 18-year veteran police officer argued that Lawlor was obligated to protect the people of the city he served and that's even if it meant using a gun.
Prosecutors argued that police, just like the rest of us, have to follow the laws.
A manslaughter and assault conviction carries a prison sentence of as much as 40 years.
