COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Maryland prosecutors dismissed criminal charges on Thursday against a police officer who fatally shot a man during an untamed raid by a tactical team at his family’s home, a murder that galvanized a loose net. of anti-government extremists this year.
Duncan Socrates Lemp’s family said the 21-year-old was sleeping in his bed next to his girlfriend when a Montgomery County police officer opened fire, but prosecutors concluded that Lemp aimed a rifle at the officer and posed a threat.
The office of Howard County State Attorney Rich Gibson Jr., who analyzed the case and presented evidence to a grand jury, said in a 17-page report that the unidentified police officer was justified in using lethal force.
Members of a tactical unit were carrying out an undetected search warrant at the Lemp family home around 4:30 am on March 12, when the officer fired five shots from outside a shattered window, hitting Lemp every five times.
Family lawyer Rene Sandler said the report reveals that no video from the body’s camera recorded the shooting. She also noted that prosecutors concluded that there was no evidence of any crossfire or that Lemp’s gun had been fired.
Sandler said the family, who is also represented by attorney Jon Fellner, is “extremely disappointed that prosecutors refuse to charge for the murder of their son”.
“To reach their conclusion, they had to ignore very important eyewitness facts, unfortunately,” she added. Sandler said the family is likely to sue “all those responsible”.
The shooting turned Lemp into a martyr to a loose network of armed anti-government extremists in fist who promote “boogaloo”, slang for a second civil war or collapse of civilization. Many promoters of the boogaloo movement have turned their name into a hashtag campaign on social media.
The nascent boogaloo movement has been linked to a series of domestic terrorism plans and has been promoted by white supremacists, but many supporters insist they are not really advocating violence. A post on Lemp’s Instagram account shortly before his death showed two people holding rifles and included the term “boogaloo”, which derives from the name of a 1980s movie sequence.
In social media accounts, Lemp’s username was “YungQuant”. On an Internet forum called My Militia, a user who identified himself as Potomac’s Duncan Lemp and posted with the username “yungquant” said he was “an active III% ‘r looking for local members and recruits”. This is an apparent reference to the Three Percent, a wing of the militia movement.
Detectives obtained a preventive arrest warrant to search Lemp’s home after receiving an anonymous tip that he had firearms illegally, police said. Lemp had a criminal record as a teenager, making it illegal for him to own or legally buy firearms in Maryland until he turned 30, police said.
A “confidential source” told investigators in February that Lemp was involved in the Three Percent and had made “anti-police” statements in the past, prosecutors said.
“The police felt that hitting and announcing their presence would put the police in serious danger if Lemp decided to resist his arrest,” prosecutors wrote.
Less than a month before the shooting, Lemp said in a text message that he was “packing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but you know it has consequences”.
“I really feel the boog,” he added. “I may not survive to see it, but I am confident that my brothers will.”
Lemp’s parents, Mercedes and Matt Lemp, told the Associated Press in October that their son was not a threat to the tactical unit officers who broke into his home. They also do not believe that he was part of any extremist movement.
Lemp’s girlfriend Kasey Robinson and his parents said the software engineer was sleeping in his room when police shot him from outside his home in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC
Prosecutors said the evidence did not support Robinson’s claim that bullets shattered the bedroom window. They believe it is more likely that Robinson heard another member of the SWAT team manually break the window before the officer fired.
“Anyone subjected to this type of sensory overload would have a hard time remembering exactly what happened. It is an extremely chaotic situation, ”says the report.
The officer who shot Lemp fatally was placed on administrative leave, a standard procedure.
The policeman, who is not mentioned in the report, told investigators that he repeatedly shouted, “Police, show me your hands!” and saw a screaming Robinson raise his hands before he saw Lemp get out of bed. The officer said Lemp ignored his orders to show his hands, bent down and picked up a rifle. He believes he has said repeatedly, “Don’t do this,” while Lemp raised his rifle and aimed it.
“At that point, the (police) thought Lemp was going to kill him and then made the decision to shoot Lemp,” says the report.
No other officer could see what the officer saw when looking out the window, but at least six officers heard him shouting commands, according to prosecutors.
Lemp’s room also had an external door where the authorities found a “trap” affixed to the frame, designed to fire a shotgun bullet at anyone who entered the room outside the house, according to the police.
Police detectives recovered three rifles and two handguns from the house.
Robinson’s lawyer, Cary Hansel, believes that Howard County prosecutors “handpicked” the secret jury’s testimony to quote in his report. Hansel asked the state attorney to publicly release all the evidence and evidence they presented to the grand jury.
“The two questions are: what charges were brought before the grand jury, if any were brought before the grand jury and then what was the decision, if any, did the grand jury make?” he asked.