CINCINNATI -- A judge on Wednesday acquitted a Cincinnati police officer of charges related to the fatal shooting of an unarmed 19-year-old black man in April that triggered three days of race riots.
Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Ted Winkler, deciding the case without a jury, ruled that Stephen Roach, 27, was justified in the shooting of Timothy Thomas, who the officer said he chased into a dark alley and shot when Thomas ignored orders to "show his hands" and appeared to go for a gun.
Roach, who did not testify during a seven-day trial, had given police investigators different versions of what happened when he shot Thomas in the early morning of April 7 after responding to a police call about a fleeing suspect.
The judge acquitted Roach of both negligent homicide and obstructing official business -- the second charge related to his differing accounts of the shooting -- both misdemeanors that carried a maximum total sentence of nine months in prison.
