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Indictments against the Tallahassee police officers involved in the fatal shootings of three Black men, Tony McDade, Mychael Johnson and Wilbon Woodard, have been declined by a grand jury in Leon County, ABC reports.
Jurors found that the officers were justified in their use of lethal force in the three separate shooting deaths. The highly-publicized police killings essentially sparked Black Lives Matter protests across the state.
Following the announcement, Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey called for a review of the Tallahassee Police Department’s use of deadly force policy. He also shared plans for the department to add a mental health element.
Minutes after the report and video were released, protest organizers sent out a group text calling for a protest on Saturday.
McDade, a 38-year-old Black transgender man, was shot and killed May 27 at a Holton Street apartment complex. Just moments before the shooting, McDade fatally stabbed Malik Jackson 21, whose mother, Jennifer Jackson, lived next door on Saxon Street and was the object of his romantic obsessions.
The grand jury wrote that on May 26, McDade entered Jennifer Jackson's apartment armed with a gun and a knife, which led to a violent confrontation with Malik Jackson and some of his family members.
A portion of the fight was recorded on cellphone video that the grand jury reviewed. The video, widely circulated on social media, showed a group of people slamming McDade to the ground and punching and kicking him.
While some saw it as a savage beating, Jackson family members have said they were defending themselves against someone who was armed, dangerous and mentally unhinged.
Later that night, McDade again burst into the Jacksons' apartment, brandishing a handgun and yelling “I’m going to get you” to Malik Jackson. Police were called after both incidents, but McDade was not there and no arrests were made.
McDade went live on Facebook the same night vowing to kill members of the Jackson family and to commit “suicide by cop.”
“This is Tony the Tiger, all alone, coming for your blood,” McDade said in the video. “Me and the law will have a standoff after I end you bitches’ lives, because I am fed up.”
The next morning, McDade snuck up on Malik Jackson, who was sitting in his vehicle in his mom’s driveway, and stabbed him repeatedly through the open door. Police arrived and issued a be-on-the-lookout for “a bald black female” armed with a gun and a knife who had just stabbed someone.