Daily FGS
Grand jury clears shooter in Syracuse road-rage killing; DA changes course, won’t release his name
By Douglass Dowty
Syracuse, NY — An Onondaga County grand jury has cleared a legally armed shooter in last week’s downtown road-rage homicide of a crime, the district attorney announced Thursday afternoon.The 43-year-old shooter was found by the grand jury to have legally acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Ezell Hicks Jr., 61, after Hicks approached his car with a “large chef-style knife.”
The shooter fired a 9mm handgun three times from his vehicle’s open window with Hicks less than five feet away, the DA’s office determined.
“When a Grand Jury hears evidence and decides not to file charges the matter is over and the records sealed,” the DA’s office said in a news release.
The prosecutor’s office also declined to name the shooter, citing “credible threats” against the man uncovered during the investigation. It vowed to fight any attempts to have the man’s name released through the court system.
This may be the first time in recent history that someone known to have committed a Syracuse homicide was not charged with some crime, even if acting in self-defense. Often, a person who kills someone in self-defense may face other charges like criminal possession of a weapon.
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Syracuse.com
The DA couldn’t convince the Grand Jury to charge this ham sammich, nor hang secondary charges on him. Pity, that.
If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.
— Alexander Hamilton
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