FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A mistrial was declared after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the trial of a Fort Worth police officer accused of shooting and injuring a man who was walking in his neighborhood while holding a barbecue fork.
The judge in the trial of 35-year-old Courtney Johnson declared the mistrial Wednesday after the Tarrant County jury had deliberated for two days.
Johnson had been charged with aggravated assault by a public servant in the 2015 shooting of 56-year-old Craigory Adams.
District Attorney Sharen Wilson says she will consider the lack of a verdict along with the evidence at trial to determine whether to retry the case.
Prosecutors had argued that Adams didn’t do anything to justify being shot.
Johnson testified that his shotgun accidentally discharged.
Adams, who has a mental impairment, had dropped the fork and gone down on a knee when he was shot.