By Chris Palmer and Rodrigo Torrejón
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge on Wednesday reinstated all charges, including first-degree murder, against the now-fired city police officer who fatally shot 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry in Kensington this past summer.
The decision by Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom means that the prosecution of Mark Dial will now proceed to trial, an outcome that had been uncertain after another judge — Municipal Court Judge Wendy Pew — dismissed all charges after a preliminary hearing last month.
The development marks the latest chapter in the controversial case — one that has led to rallies and demonstrations at which Irizarry’s relatives have called for justice. Dial’s supporters, meanwhile, have contended that his actions did not amount to a crime.
The case has attracted intense interest from community members, clergy leaders, and some elected officials. And after Pew dismissed charges last month, there were also numerous instances of burglaries and vandalism at businesses throughout the city — crimes that police were quick to say had been committed by “criminal opportunists” seeking to take advantage of the uproar over the case.
On Wednesday, prosecutors told Ransom they believed Pew erred when she ruled that they hadn’t presented enough evidence to substantiate murder charges against Dial. They also said Pew was wrong to have considered the contentions of Dial’s lawyers that his actions were justified, saying such issues should be argued at a possible trial — not at a preliminary hearing.
”There is no doubt ... that Mark Dial did something horribly wrong,” said Assistant District Attorney Lyandra Retacco, adding that any “disputed facts” about how and why he shot Irizarry — and whether he should be convicted for it — were questions for a jury to consider.
Dial’s lawyers, meanwhile, reiterated what they have said since the shooting happened Aug. 14: Dial’s shooting of Irizarry — who was holding a knife inside his car — was a tragedy, but not a crime.
“This isn’t a murder case. It never was,” said Brian McMonagle, insisting that Dial fired because he believed Irizarry had been holding a gun, and he was afraid for his safety.
Ransom said the dueling interpretations showed the need for the case to go to trial. She ordered Dial jailed without bail until then, as is typical for people charged with first-degree murder. Dial was immediately taken into custody from the courtroom.
McMonagle said afterward that he was “extremely disappointed” in the ruling but would be prepared to put the case before a jury. He said he planned to ask for jurors to be selected from outside the city, saying he believed panelists should be chosen from a place “where the governing officials of the city aren’t speaking out against” Dial.
Irizarry’s relatives, meanwhile, said they were relieved that the case had been revived. Irizarry’s father, also named Eddie Irizarry, said accountability should apply to everyone.
”We’re all humans. But when we make mistakes, we have to put our chest up and accept that we have to pay for those mistakes. Good or bad,” he said in Spanish.
Zoraida Garcia, Irizarry’s aunt, said she stepped out before Ransom announced her ruling, overwhelmed with the emotion of dealing with the “hell” of the past two months. But afterward, part of the weight was lifted, Garcia said.
”I’m feeling great,” she said. “There’s still steps that we have to take, but as of right now, he’s where he belongs.”
What happened in the shooting?Dial, 27, a five-year veteran of the force, shot and killed Irizarry, 27, as he sat in his car in Kensington. Police said Irizarry had been driving erratically, including by swerving into a bike lane and driving the wrong way down a one-way street. And they initially said Irizarry had lunged at Dial with a knife, leading the officer to shoot him.
But video — including footage captured on Dial’s bodycam — showed that wasn’t true: Irizarry was in his car, with the windows rolled up and a knife in his hand, when Dial opened fire within seconds of getting out of his police cruiser.
On Aug. 23, then-Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said she was suspending Dial with intent to dismiss him from the force for refusing to cooperate with the department’s internal investigation into the shooting.
About two weeks after that, District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office charged Dial with crimes including first- and third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated assault.
Prosecutors had alleged that Dial’s partner yelled “knife” before Dial opened fire, and that because he emerged from his police car with his gun drawn, and then fired within five seconds, he should be charged with murder.
But Dial’s lawyers have said the officer thought his partner yelled “gun,” and that Dial’s shooting of Irizarry was justified under state law, which allows police to use deadly force to protect themselves or others from a threat of death or serious injury.
Pew, the Municipal Court judge who presided over Dial’s preliminary hearing, said she agreed with that argument when she moved to dismiss all charges against Dial last month.
Prosecutors immediately appealed that decision, setting the stage for Wednesday’s hearing before Ransom.
During the proceeding, Retacco said it was simply not true that Dial’s partner, Michael Morris, had yelled gun. At Dial’s preliminary hearing, she said, Morris repeatedly testified that he had warned Dial that Irizarry was holding a knife.
It wasn’t until he was cross-examined by McMonagle that Morris said it was “fair” to suggest that an audio recording of the events made it sound as if someone had yelled gun before Dial opened fire.
And in either case, Retacco said, such a critical factual dispute was not a matter to be decided at this early stage of the case.
“We can’t litigate that at a preliminary hearing,” she said.
The case has sparked ongoing protestsThe atmosphere in Ransom’s courtroom was tense, with supporters of both Dial and Irizarry and members of the media packing gallery benches as lawyers awaiting other cases stood along the courtroom walls.
In the hours before the hearing, about a dozen protesters held a banner outside the courthouse that read “Justice For Eddie,” “End Police Brutality,” and, in Spanish, “Not one more.”
”The people have seen the footage, they’ve seen the video. And people feel as though there’s an ample amount of evidence to understand that Mark Dial committed cold-blooded murder and that Eddie’s family needs justice. So we’re here to say we’re not going to accept another dismissal,” said Xiomara Torres, of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, one of the organizing groups.
Irizarry’s father, wearing a shirt with a photo of his son, said before the judge’s ruling that he felt anxious and hoped that Ransom would apply the law in the case against Dial in the same way she applied it to everyone else.
Dial, he said, ”didn’t kill a criminal. He killed an innocent young man.”
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