BILL POOVEY, Associated Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- A rookie policeman charged in a fatal shooting during a traffic stop entered no plea at a Friday arraignment and asked to have his trial moved, a request opposed by the victim’s family.
Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Stephen Bevil allowed the officer, Christopher Gaynor, 24, to remain free on bond pending a Nov. 24 motion and “settlement” hearing.
Bevil also set a Jan. 6 trial on the criminally negligent homicide charge in the fatal shooting of John Eric Henderson, 32.
Gaynor did not speak at the hearing and left without making any comment after standing before the judge with his attorney, Lee Davis.
“We anticipate filing a change of venue motion,” Davis told Bevil.
Gaynor, who is suspended without pay from his job, was on his fourth day working alone after three months as a trainee on May 29 when he pulled Henderson over because of a loud muffler and improper tag.
Gaynor has said that after the stop, Henderson got out of the car, disobeyed an order and reached in on the passenger side. Gaynor said he feared for his life when he thought Henderson was reaching for a gun.
Investigators recovered only a screwdriver and a knife from Henderson’s car. The victim was stopped on a residential street in front of a house he was helping repair.
Henderson’s wife, 10-year-old daughter and mother declined comment after the arraignment and referred questions to Kevin Muhammad, who identified himself as a local representative of the Nation of Islam.
“The main thing is the change of venue,” Muhammad said. “They are trying to get a guilty man off.”
Davis said the “no plea” was the same as an innocent plea. Davis said he would have to review records of media coverage before deciding if Gaynor could get a fair trial in Hamilton County.
He described Gaynor as “very broken up by the whole thing.”
Muhammad said the charge of criminally negligent homicide was a concession to Gaynor.
“That’s already a settlement. The family will settle for nothing less than a full trial” in Hamilton County, he said.
Police Chief Jimmie Dotson previously said Gaynor “went through the proper procedure and practices, the way he had been trained to do.”
Another policeman, Moreland Wilson, 27, arrived in a patrol car moments behind Gaynor and told investigators he also fired a shot at Henderson. Wilson, who has worked for the department since November 1998, has been assigned to administrative duties, a department spokesman said.