Man who shot and killed unarmed SC teen will not be charged, police say

A man who shot and killed a South Carolina teenager he confronted over a stolen car will not face criminal charges.

The North Charleston Police Department announced Monday that it will not pursue charges against Quadarrel Lamont Morton, 24, for fatally shooting 15-year-old Derrick Grant on Jan. 17, according to multiple media reports.

In a statement, the police department’s spokesman, Spencer Pryor, said officials had examined the evidence in the case and determined the shooting death could not “reasonably prosecutable” under state law, according to ABC News 4.

The shooting was precipitated by an incident on Jan. 16, when Morton left his girlfriend’s 2013 Hyundai Sonata running with the keys in the ignition while inside a store, ABC News 4 reported. When he came out, the car had been stolen. A day later, Morton said he spotted the car in the cul-de-sac of his neighborhood.

Police told the teen’s family they’re unsure why Grant showed up in the neighborhood, according to The Post and Courier. But Morton said he saw the car and headed for it armed with a gun.

When he spotted a person go inside the car with a key, he told the person to stop, the paper reported.

“I said, ‘Hey look, that’s my car. What are you doing in my car?’ He reached for something,” according to the Post and Courier. “I fired once. … I saw him reach again. I fired one more time.”

Why Morton chose to confront the teen instead of calling police still baffles Grant’s family.

“Instead of waiting for law enforcement to arrive or explaining to law enforcement that he had located his car that he had reported stolen the day prior, he took the law into his own hands,” said Mark Peper, the attorney representing Grant’s family, in an interview with Live 5 News.

Peper told Live 5 News that the police department told him it’s treating the incident as a lawful citizen’s arrest, and that Morton shooter had a reasonable fear for his life.

The state’s “Stand Your Ground” provision allows individuals to use deadly force without duty to retreat to prevent the death or great bodily injury of themselves or another person.

Because no one saw the confrontation between the two, investigators are left with Morton’s self-defense claim, Peper told the Post and Courier.

Peper told Live 5 News he’s considering filing a civil lawsuit.

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Man who shot and killed unarmed SC teen will not be charged, police say."