The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A jury’s decision to exonerate a Little Rock police officer in the fatal shooting of a man three years ago in his mother’s beauty salon has been upheld by a federal appeals court.
A U.S. District Court jury decided in July 2003 that Officer Greg Smith did not use excessive force in shooting Norman Rollins, 35, on April 14, 2001, at Mary’s Magic Curl.
The shooting occurred the second time Smith was summoned to the shop that day by its owner, Mary Rollins, because her son was creating a disturbance.
Norman Rollins had been diagnosed as schizophrenic. His mother said after the shooting that she could tell her son had stopped taking his medication by the way he was acting. Tests after his death also showed alcohol and marijuana in Rollins’ system.
On Thursday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis upheld the decision in the Arkansas courtroom. A three-judge panel rejected Mary Rollins’ arguments against the verdict itself as well as some of the rulings by U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele.
The appeals court said Eisele correctly followed the law and 8th Circuit precedent in his rulings.
An internal police investigation had also cleared Smith of wrongdoing.
Smith went to the beauty shop after Mary Rollins complained to police that her son’s behavior was driving away customers.
Smith testified that he tried to get the man into a police cruiser to take him home, but a scuffle ensued in which Norman Rollins grabbed the officer’s baton, then tried to get his gun.
“I wasn’t trying to arrest him. I was trying to get him out of there because I knew Mrs. Rollins was trying to conduct business,” Smith testified during trial of the suit against him.