"It is my legal opinion that when Officer Davis fired his weapon, he had a reasonable belief that Mr. Ruffin posed an immediate threat capable of inflicting death or great bodily harm. Therefore, Officer Davis will not be charged for his actions", Gipson said on Wednesday.
Gipson added that a review of body cam evidence confirmed that Ruffin, 17, pulled a .45 revolver on the officer. Davis fired 10 shots, one of which hit Ruffin in the forehead and killed him.
“You have a young black male who died at the hands of law enforcement”, he said, as quoted by a local news outlet. “We’re not blind to hearing that criticism and that commentary. But we have to look at what the law is, what the actions were, and how they fit within the law”.
Ruffin's death led to days of protests in the town of Columbia and has been compared to the death in police custody of African-American George Floyd that set off weeks of peaceful protests, with many of which later turning violent across the United States.
