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Ex-Detective Cleared in Killing

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From Associated Press

A former Louisville police detective was acquitted of murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a teenage drug suspect that stoked racial tensions in the city.

The former detective, McKenzie Mattingly, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. The jurors -- 10 white and two black -- returned the partial verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations; the judge declared a mistrial on a separate charge of wanton endangerment after the jury was unable to reach agreement on that count.

Mattingly was charged with shooting Michael Newby, 19, three times in the back Jan. 3 during an undercover drug buy.

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The shooting sparked weeks of protests in part because Newby was the seventh black man killed by Louisville police since 1998. Mattingly, who was fired for violating the department’s use-of-force policy, is white.

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