Officers Facing Lesser Beating Death Charges

Prosecutors have decided not to file first- or second-degree murder charges against five white policemen in the beating and suffocation death of a black motorist. Civil-rights advocates criticized the decision.

A coroner’s jury last week had recommended homicide charges in the Oct. 12 death of Jonny Gammage, which some jurors likened to a lynching. Gammage, 31, was a cousin of Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive end Ray Seals.

Allegheny County Dist. Atty. Robert Colville said Monday that he had rejected first- or second-degree homicide charges because the officers’ testimony during the coroner’s inquest showed they had not intended to kill Gammage.

But he said he will continue studying whether to file less serious charges of third-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.

Gammage got out of his car after he was stopped by an officer who said Gammage was driving his cousin’s Jaguar sedan erratically. The officers testified they tried to restrain Gammage with blows from flashlights and pressure from batons.

NAACP board members criticized Colville’s decision. One of them, Pearl Story-Nelson, said she believed the officers meant to kill Gammage “because of the way that they covered up what they did.”