A second grand jury in Pima County, Arizona, has decided not to indict manslaughter against a former Tucson police officer who shot and killed a wheelchair-bound suspect nine times in a shopping mall parking lot.
Ryan Remington, 32, shot Richard Lee Richards, 61, after hours in a city mall parking lot. On November 30, 2021, Richards stabbed a Walmart employee with a knife as he was leaving the store with a stolen toolbox.
Richards was heading to Lowe’s across the parking lot when Remington, then a Walmart security guard, ordered Richards to drop his knife and not enter another store.
The suspect ignored officers before Remington opened fire and Richards fell off his scooter and died.
A Pima County Superior Court jury on Wednesday returned with a no-bill vote on Remington’s indictment.
Former Tucson police officer Ryan Remington, 32, has been charged with manslaughter for shooting a wheelchair-bound man accused of shoplifting outside a Lowe’s in 2021.
Richard Lee Richards has been confined to a wheelchair since he had hip surgery in prison, his sister Victoria Richards said last year.
Defense attorneys alleged that state prosecutors made misleading statements to the original grand jury. Pima County Superior Court Judge Danell Liuskey agreed, but believed he did not do so on purpose.
Liwski last month granted the defense’s request to remand the case to a grand jury.
In a statement, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said, “As this matter continues to be investigated, notifying victims is our top priority at this time.”
Remington was fired in January 2022 after police determined he used excessive force.
A civil rights lawsuit filed by the Richards family against Remington and the city of Tucson is pending in federal court.
During the theft, Richards allegedly threw a knife at a store employee who demanded a receipt for the item.
“Here’s the receipt,” Richard reportedly told the clerk while showing the weapon.
“He has a knife in his other hand,” someone can hear on body camera video as Richards makes his way to the entrance of a large box store.
Seconds later, we see Remington unloading the weapon on the shoplifter.
Remington catches up with Richards in the parking lot and asks him to turn the knife over, which he refuses.
Remington (left, facing back) tells Richards to “stay out of the store”, but begins firing when Richards does not stop.
After the shooting, Richards collapsed from his chair, an unidentified duty officer handcuffed Richards, and Remington and another officer, Stephanie Taylor, grabbed medical supplies.
During the theft, Richards allegedly threw a knife at a store employee who demanded a receipt for the item. “Here’s the receipt,” Richard reportedly told the clerk, showing his weapon.
Richards has been in a wheelchair since undergoing hip surgery in prison.His sister Victoria Richards said KGUN. She said her brother battled drug addiction and spent most of his life in prison.
While in prison, he volunteered to fight a wildfire and fell off a cliff and hit his head.
“He came out with a severe brain injury. He came to live with me and I taught him how to drive and how to count money. Everything came back pretty quickly. But it was like having a baby again,” she told a TV news channel in 2021.
She and her brother got into an altercation and dropped him off at a Salvation Army center years before the shooting.
Office Ryan Remington (pictured holding a gun) was fired from the Tucson Police Department (TPD) in January 2022 for excessive use of force.
Richards (left, wheelchair) was shot “in the back and side” and his family filed a lawsuit against Remington
Rick Lesh, an attorney for Richard’s family, said in August that he was relieved that the officers would eventually be brought to justice.
“After a long and difficult past nine months for Mr. Richards’ family, they are relieved that former officer Ryan Remington will be indicted and face the prospect of justice for the shooting and murder of Mr. Richards. ‘, said Resch. statement.
In Arizona, manslaughter is a Class 2 felony punishable by a minimum of seven years’ imprisonment and is defined as “recklessly causing the death of another person.”
Remington did not testify before a grand jury to present reasons for his defense.
Remington Attorney Mike Story Says Manslaughter Charges Are Not Appropriate KVOA. “I don’t want to get into legal debates, but this is legal fiction. So I read the grand jury records to find out what was going on in that room when I wasn’t present.” I am very interested in
Storie has said in the past that his clients “didn’t have a non-lethal option.”
“He had a taser, but he couldn’t use it because he had a wheelchair between him and Richards and felt there wasn’t a proper spread to deploy,” the attorney said.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero praised the indictment of the former police officer in August.
“Now that a grand jury has issued an indictment and criminal charges have been filed against Ryan Remington, it’s a matter for a court to decide,” she tweeted.
After an internal investigation after the shooting, Remington, a four-year veteran of the police department, was canned by then-police chief Chris Magnus.
The chief said he was “deeply upset and troubled” by the former officer’s handling. “His use of lethal force in this incident is a clear violation of departmental policy and directly contradicts multiple aspects of our use and training of force,” Magnus said.
