by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
Gary Edwards was acquitted after a jury heard Gregory Howard Jr. use the slur on police body camera footage
A racial slur by a white man was the catalyst for a Portland jury to acquit a Black man, Gary Edwards, of assault charges after he stabbed a white man who uttered the N-word during the incident.
Edwards did admit to stabbing Howard in self-defense, but it was based on his aggressiveness toward him and calling him the N-word upon approaching him. Howard denies using the racial slur. Cameras from the station showed Edwards, with a knife at his side, approaching his adversary from behind while Howard was sitting on a bench. The video shows Howard getting up and pushing Edwards after sighting him, as the two start fighting. There was no audio, but it showed Howard being stabbed in the shoulder by Edwards.
Edwards’s attorney, Daniel Small, told the jury during the trial that Edwards was going to Howard to offer him his knife in exchange for some cigarettes. He also stated that, although Howard said he didn’t use the N-word against his client, video evidence from police officers after they arrived on the scene disproved that. However, police officers’ body cameras recorded Howard clearly saying the word when he told officers what transpired before they arrived on the scene.
“What other than racism could explain why Mr. Howard perceived hatred, animosity, and aggression from a complete stranger?” Small asked the jury.
Meanwhile, Howard has been arrested numerous times in recent years, and he was also convicted of felony rape of a child in Washington’s Kitsap County in 1997.
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Source: Black Enterprise
