dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2428995/Jon-Ferrell-unarmed-shot-dead-cop-crashing-car-Now-mother-accused-racist-called-911-night-pounded-door-insists-NEVER-asked-help.html
EXCLUSIVE: Mother whose panicked 911 call led to police shooting death of unarmed former football player after car crash insists he NEVER asked for help
By M L Nestel In Charlotte, North Carolina
A mother who called 911 when she was woken by an unarmed black man ‘pounding’ at her door seeking help after a car crash moments before he was shot dead by police today insisted that he never asked for help.
Sarah McCartney, 32, has been partly blamed for the shocking death of 24-year-old African American scholar and former college footballer Jonathan Ferrell in the early hours of September 14 in an upscale neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina.
On his RIP Facebook page, one woman said she ‘was obviously a racist’ and should feel ‘disgusted with herself for starting the chain of events that led to his innocent man’s death’.
And in an area of America long-scarred by slavery, racial tensions are running high.
The local NAACP president said the killing ‘smells more of hatred and rage’ and he said the officer who shot at Ferrell 10 times was ‘predisposed to killing a black man and did so with extreme prejudice’. The officer, Randall Kerrick, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter.
But friends of McCartney have painted a different picture of a terrified mother of a newborn baby, alone and terrified in the pitch black while her husband was at work.
A close neighbor, who did not want to be named, told MailOnline: ‘It’s totally awful and heartbreaking that the guy died, but the blame shouldn’t be placed on my friend. She called the cops because someone was freaking her out. She felt like she was going to have a heart attack.
‘It wasn’t knocking, he was pounding at her door and kicking. She was home alone with her baby.
‘He never said he needed help. He had the sense to tell her a couple of things, but he didn’t say he needed help.
‘I completely agree with what she did. I don’t care if it is a white guy or any guy or a woman that’s knocking at my door like that. It was for the police to pick up and they take over.’
So what is known of what happened that night?
The tragic chain of events began when Ferrell crashed in the middle of the night in a neighborhood he was unfamiliar with.
The young man, who was recently engaged and working two jobs after recently moving to Charlotte, drifted off a side road into a thicket of trees, totaling his future father-in-law’s 1999 Toyota Camry.
Trapped, he had to kick through back window to free himself from the wreckage. It is unknown at this point how badly injured the former Florida A&M player was. But he managed to stagger uphill to the first house on Reedy Creek Drive – about a quarter of a mile away.
The large house is part of the Bradfield Farm estate, 17 miles east of Charlotte. It is a community of well-manicured two-story homes, it also has four tennis courts, two swimming pools and a clubhouse. New and resale houses are available in the $110,000 - $230,000 range.
Asleep upstairs in one of them was 32-year-old Sarah McCartney.
The mother, had gone to bed alone as her husband, Brian, went to work the nightshift at a hospital in nearby Concord, where he is a registered nurse. In the next room was her infant son, James.
At 2.36 am, she was shaken awake by thunderous booms at the front door.
McCartney ran downstairs and opened the door, possibly thinking it was her husband returning home. But she quickly slammed it shut again on seeing Ferrell there.
The dazed mother dialed 911 in hysterics and activated the family alarm system which began to wail as their large family dog begins to bark loudly.
‘There’s a guy breaking in my front door,’ she said during the 17-minute call, the transcript of which has been released. ‘He’s trying to get in.’
Also heard in the foreground is a man’s voice distinctly shouting ‘Hello!’
It’s unclear if it’s Ferrell.
But McCartney repeatedly begs the 911 dispatcher to summon cops. McCartney informs the dispatcher that she's defenseless.
She is also able to recall that her husband, who has a hunting license from their native Ohio, stows a gun at home, but she couldn’t recall where.
Asked if the intruder had entered her home McCartney said: ‘He’s not in the house, he’s in the front yard yelling. Oh my God, please. I can’t believe I opened the door. I don’t know what the f---is wrong with me.’
The mother cried: ‘Please hurry.’
At one point during the distressed call she told the dispatcher: ‘He's yelling. He's yelling to turn off the alarm.’
McCartney can be heard telling Ferrell: ‘No! I'm calling the police, I'm on the phone with 911!’
According to McCartney's friend, Ferrell wasn’t acting like a helpless man but a ferocious threat.
‘He wasn’t limping to the door and crying “Help”,’ the friend said. ‘I saw her face afterward and she was scared. [McCartney] only learned later that he was in a car accident.’
Six minutes into the call McCartney assumed Ferrell fled because the motion-sensored light shuts off.
But it’s more than eleven minutes until cops finally arrived onto the scene. McCartney can’t see them though.
‘Oh my God, they really left. That’s three cops and they all left.’ She told the dispatcher.
The dispatcher assured the shaken mother that they must be attempting to arrest Ferrell, who was at this point barefoot – presumably because he lost his shoes kicking out the window of his car.
‘They might have seen him. They might have gone to get him.’
What is known - and so much is still not clear - of what happened next is that two of three responding cops aimed their red Taser beams at Ferrell, who was unarmed.
Only Officer Randall Kerrick, 27, unholstered his police issued pistol.
After one of the cops misfired his Taser in an attempt to safely subdue Ferrell - the staccato of gunshots erupted from Kerrick’s firearm.
Of the 12 shots Kerrick unloaded - ten hit Ferell.
Crucial questions remain.
Did Ferrell ‘run towards Officer Kerrick’ as the preliminary police report suggests?
And with a trio of armed cops, was there even a need to use deadly force against an already injured and unarmed man?
Christopher Chestnut, who is representing the Ferrell family, told MailOnline Ferrell was hardly a threat.
The cops had the numbers and if Ferrell was aggressive they had the numbers.
‘There are three police officers and one individual. It’s three on one.’
He claims Officer Kerrick went rogue and ‘took his badge and gun and became a killer’ that night.
The police have not yet released the dashcam from the police cruiser at the scene, but audio can be heard.
Chestnut said footage shows Ferrell apparently tried to show officers he was unarmed by pulling up his pants. Ferrell then turned and started running – possibly towards Kerrick. Chestnut said the former footballer’s empty hands were outstretched.
‘It’s one, two, three, four – pause,’ Chestnut told the Charlotte Observer, counting the shots. ‘One, two, three, four, five, six – pause. One, two.’
Chestnut said it was only then that officers yelled: ‘Get down’. But Ferrell was that point already fatally wounded.