Alabama Attorney General Clears Police Officer Who Murdered EJ Bradford After Mall Shooting

An Alabama police officer was justified in killing a legally-armed 21-year-old African-American man while responding to a shooting allegedly committed by someone else at a mall on Thanksgiving night, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall ruled on Tuesday.

Marshall issued an online report saying the facts of the case did not merit going to a grand jury to seek an indictment against the officer who killed Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr. at the Riverchase Galleria mall in Hoover.

Marshall said an exhaustive probe by the State Bureau of Investigation showed the officer, who he identified only as "Officer 1," was justified in shooting Bradford -- whose family, citing an independent autopsy, claimed was shot three times in the back.

"After an extensive investigation and review, the Attorney General has determined Officer 1 did not commit a crime under Alabama law when he shot and killed EJ Bradford and thus the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct preclude presentation of this case to a grand jury," Marshall's report states.

"The facts of this case demonstrate that Officer 1 reasonably exercised his official powers, duties, or functions when he shot" Bradford, according to the report.

Attorneys for the Bradford family said their own investigation showed that Bradford drew his gun in an attempt to protect himself and others when he was shot.

"He was really the hero in all of this. He did nothing wrong," Bradford's mother, April Pitkins, said of her son Tuesday after the report was released.

Her attorney, Benjamin Crump, said it was unbelievable that Marshall decided not to take the case to a grand jury.

"When you look at that report, it is bias 100 percent to exonerate the police of murder," Crump said during a news conference on Tuesday.

He added that "reasonable minds would have said, 'This needs to have a trial by jury.'"

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Sadly I am not surprised because this is Alabama we're talking about. It's sad and completely f*cked up this happened. I am outraged like everyone else but at the end of the day nothing is going to happen from being outraged. EJ Bradford was murdered. He had a valid license and a mall shooting just occurred. My thoughts are with his family.