Virginia ex-cop gets 2-1/2 year sentence for black teen's shooting death

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

A former Portsmouth, Virginia, police officer was sentenced on Wednesday to 2-1/2 years in prison for the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager last year, a court spokesman said.

The ex-officer, Stephen Rankin, 36, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in August for shooting William Chapman II, 18, while investigating a shoplifting report at a Walmart store.

Portsmouth Circuit Court Judge Johnny Morrison denied a request by Rankin's lawyer that he remain free while his conviction is appealed, the spokesman said in a telephone call.

Rankin, who is white, was fired by the Portsmouth police department after his grand jury indictment. Prosecutors argued that Rankin had killed Chapman in April 2015 in what had amounted to little more than a parking lot fistfight in Portsmouth, about 175 miles south of Washington.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-virginia-police-idUSKCN12C2EI

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U.S. | Wed Oct 12, 2016 | 3:09pm EDT

[Aristus]

1. Well, it's two and a half years more than a lot of his trigger-happy

colleagues are getting...

[scscholar]

2. Finally, some good news

This almost never happens.

[ColemanMaskell]

3. It's a start. Most of them get off completely.

We need to do a lot more. But at least it serves notice to other would-be killers that it won't always be tolerated -- the days of killing with complete impunity are over.

[ColemanMaskell]

4. and thanks for posting it.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Better than the customary acquittal.Here's his photo, taken of him awarding a "stinkeye" to someone:

[center] [/center]