RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — It has been three months since Virginia State Troopers shot and killed 18 -year-old Xzavier Hill following a high-speed chase on Interstate 64.
On Feb. 26, a grand jury ruled that “the actions of the officers were justified in the exercise of deadly force and criminal charges against the two Virginia State Police Troopers involved are not warranted.” The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office also released dash cam footage of the incident along with the ruling
Now the Virginia NAACP branch has made calls for Attorney General Mark Herring to appoint a special prosecutor to continue the investigation of the officer-involved shooting. According to a release from Virginia NAACP, they are asking Herring to meet with them at the “very earliest opportunity.”
The organization says they want the Attorney General to “take action to ensure justice and transparency.”
“The Virginia NAACP has a long-held position of advocating for the appointment of special prosecutors to conduct the investigations related to the death of Black people resulting from an encounter with law enforcement,” said President Robert Barnette. “We are living in a time of heightened sensitivity and tension, and we call upon our elected officials and appointed policymakers to use the power of their executive authority to make sure that we have full transparency and equal protection under the law.”
The NAACP also wants to see a special prosecutor appointed every time law enforcement officers are involved with a citizen’s death.
A special prosecutor is appointed to cases in which regular prosecutor is either unable or unqualified to handle or has other reasons to not act as the prosecutor.