A former police officer from Decatur, Alabama, has been charged with murder in the shooting death of Stephen Perkins, a black man who confronted a tow truck driver trying to repossess his vehicle.
23-year-old Mac Bailey Marquette, previously an officer with the Decatur Police Department, turned himself in at the county jail and was booked on a grand jury warrant for murder, according to Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson.
Marquette’s arrest came after the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) concluded its months-long investigation into the deadly officer-involved shooting. Three other officers involved in the incident are not facing criminal charges because they did not fire shots at Perkins, said Anderson.
Perkins, 39, was shot and killed outside his home on September 29 after a tow truck driver claimed he had been threatened with a gun. Surveillance video captured a barrage of bullets being fired at Perkins, and his truck being towed away as he lay dying on the ground.
The family of Perkins has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the police officers involved in the shooting and Decatur city officials. Perkins was a married father-of-two who worked for a pet food manufacturer and had a mostly clean criminal record.
The former officers involved in the shooting have appealed the decisions concerning their employment, and hearings for those appeals were scheduled to begin later this month.