A judge dismissed all charges Tuesday against a Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot a driver last month.

Mark Dial shot 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry through the rolled-up driver’s side window of Irizarry’s sedan during a traffic stop on Aug. 14.

Dial and his partner, Officer Michael Morris, say they had been pursuing Irizarry for driving erratically and turning the wrong way down a one-way street. Morris testified that Irizarry had a knife in his hand and had started to raise it as the officers approached.

During a hearing, Dial’s lawyers argued he acted in self-defense because he believed the knife Irizarry had was a gun. Brian McMonagle, one of his lawyers, said his client was justified in shooting as he was trying to take cover and had feared for his life during the incident.

“Every tragedy is not a crime,” McMonagle said.

Initial statements from the police department said Dial shot the driver outside the vehicle after he “lunged at” police with a knife, but the department later walked back these statements.

Still, McMonagle said the charges, which included manslaughter, official oppression and four other counts, never should have been filed given the evidence.

“I agree with you 100 percent,” Judge Wendy Pew responded before tossing all charges Tuesday, per the Associated Press.

    • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Charges dropped against Philadelphia officer

      Maybe you missed that part. I mean it was the very first few words of the headline, but clearly you didn’t comprehend it.

          • Procleus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Again again again, no one is calling him innocent. Again again again, just because he isn’t innocent doesn’t mean he should have been shot. I mean how the fuck is this so hard to grasp?

            • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The difficult part for you to gasp is that you don’t pull a fucken knife on a cop. Done. Period. You seem stupid, but even you aren’t dumb enough to do that. This guy? He fucked around and found out. Nothing of value was lost that day.

      • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Are you suggesting that because the charges were dropped, he’s not a murderer? Because that’s not how language works. Being legally proven to have done a crime is not the same as having done the crime. You can be convicted while innocent or have charges dropped when actually guilty. It’s perfectly valid to call someone a murder even if the legal system is a failure.