An 11-year-old Mississippi boy who was shot by a police officer after he called 911 for help is recovering after being released from the hospital, according to his family.
The family is calling for the officer to be fired and charged with the shooting.
Aderrien Murry was shot in the chest by an Indianola Police Department officer early Saturday morning while the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance call at the child’s home, according to his mother, Nakala Murry, and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Murry told CNN that the father of another of her children arrived at her home at 4 a.m., “irate.”
Concerned about her safety, Murry asked Aderrien to call the police.
Murry said the officer who arrived at the home “had his gun drawn at the front door and asked those inside the home to come outside.” Murry said her son was shot coming around the corner of a hallway, into the living room.
“Once he came from around the corner, he got shot,” Murry said. “I cannot grasp why. The same cop that told him to come out of the house. (Aderrien) did, and he got shot. He kept asking, ‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do wrong?’” she said.
The shooting happened within what felt like “one to two minutes” after the officer asked those in the house to come outside, Murry said.
The boy was given a chest tube and placed on a ventilator at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson after developing a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver because of the shooting, his mother said. He was released from the hospital Wednesday. CNN has reached out to the hospital.
Two other children, including Murry’s daughter and 2-year-old nephew, were also in the home at the time of the shooting, she said.
Body camera footage has not been released
Murry’s family attorney Carlos Moore told CNN the incident was captured on police body camera.
The attorney said his request for the body camera footage was denied due to “an ongoing investigation.”
The body camera video of the incident has not been released publicly.
Moore also said he was told there is video of the incident from a nearby gas station.
The Indianola Police Department confirmed that the officer involved in the shooting is named Greg Capers but did not provide any additional details on the shooting, telling CNN the police chief was unavailable.
CNN reached out to Capers for comment but did not immediately hear back.
On Monday evening, the Indianola Board of Aldermen voted to place Capers on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, according to the family attorney.
In a statement over the weekend, the MBI said the agency is “currently assessing this critical incident and gathering evidence” and would turn over its findings to the state attorney general’s office after the investigation is complete.
On Wednesday, MBI spokesperson Bailey Martin declined to answer additional questions, telling CNN in an email, “Due to this being an open and ongoing investigation, no further comment will be made.”
CNN has contacted the District Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Circuit Court and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office for comment.
Family angry police officer remains employed by department
Murry said that after her son was shot, she placed her hand on his wound to apply pressure as he “sang gospel songs and prayed while bleeding out.” The officer, she said, tried to help render first aid and placed his hand on top of hers to try to stop Aderrien’s bleeding.
When an ambulance arrived, medics were “very attentive,” she said.
“Aderrien came within an inch of losing his life,” Moore said. “It’s not OK for a cop to do this and get away with this. The mother asked Aderrien to call the police on her daughter’s father. He walked out of his room as directed by the police and he got shot.”
Murry said police told her that her daughter’s father was taken into custody later in the day on Saturday but eventually released because she had not filed a police report against him.
“When was I going to have time to do that? I was in the hospital with my son,” she said, reacting to the news of the man’s release from custody.
Four days after the shooting, Murry told CNN that “no one came to the hospital from the police station” nor had she spoken to any police investigators about the shooting.
“I’m just happy my son is alive,” she said through tears.
Moore told CNN that he is furious that Capers remains employed by the Indianola Police Department.
“We believe that the city and the officer should be liable to Aderrien Murray, for the damages they have caused,” the attorney said.
Moore said they will hold a sit-in protest at the Indianola City Hall on Thursday morning.
Indianola is a small, mostly African American town with 31% of the population below the poverty line. It lies in the Mississippi Delta, about 100 miles north of Jackson.
