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A grand jury decided not to indict the two St. Paul police officers who shot and killed 24-year-old Marcus Golden in the parking lot of an apartment building in January. Police said Golden drove at officers in his SUV, and jurors ruled the shooting was justified.
Golden's death initially led to protests by the NAACP, calling for a federal investigation.
Case background
St. Paul police said officers Dan Peck and Jeremy Doverspike were called to an apartment building on University Avenue on Jan. 14 on a report that Marcus Golden was sending death threats over text messages to an ex-girlfriend.
Officers found Golden sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle parked facing the squad car at the Valley Hi-Rise. As officers approached the vehicle, they say Golden started speeding right at them, forcing them to shoot several times. Golden died at the scene.
Officers recovered a loaded handgun in the car, within Golden's reach.
Golden's mother: 'He would never intentionally hurt law enforcement'
For the mother of Marcus Golden, nothing adds up. Nothing explains why her 24-year-old son would aim his car at a St. Paul cop in a snow-covered parking lot and suddenly accelerate, especially when his mother is a 20-year member of the St. Paul Police Reserves, and his brother just got a degree in law enforcement.
"I know deep in my heart, as Marcus's mother, he would never intentionally hurt law enforcement," Ericka Cullars-Golden said.
His aunt believes the entire process is flawed; a secret grand jury proceeding, with one side presented, when the family has yet to see a single police report or autopsy results. The prosecutor who presented the case before the grand jury told the Pioneer Press "this is a guy who chose to put an officer's life in jeopardy and he was almost successful at doing it, at killing that cop. And that's the extent of this case."
The NAACP quickly condemned the killing, and along with the family, is now demanding a justice department investigation. Police say there is no squad car dash cam video of the police shooting because the squad car lights weren't activated. And what of that mysterious 911 call which brought police to the parking lot to begin with, from a romantic rival, claiming Golden was trying to kill him. Was it a trap that both Marcus and police played into? His family says they want to know all the details, because right now, it's the little things don't add up.
"I think he was scared and didn't know what was transpiring," his mother said.