WASHINGTON, December 24 (Sputnik) — A Texas grand jury has not indicted Houston police officer Juventino Castro for killing unarmed 26-year-old African-American Jordan Baker, local media report.
When the fatal shooting happened last January, Juventino Castro was off-duty working an extra job as a security guard at a strip mall, where several robberies had occurred. The police said that Baker was looking into shop windows when Officer Castro approached him and fired a deadly shot after a struggle broke out.
Castro's non-indictment follows the recent grand jury decisions not to indict two white police officers responsible for the deaths of African-Americans Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Brown, an 18-year-old teenager, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. Garner died when officer Daniel Pantaleo held him in a fatal chokehold last July in New York.
A Missouri grand jury decided not to bring charges against Wilson on November 24. On December 4 a grand jury in New York announced it was not going to indict Pantaleo.
The incidents have caused massive public outcry in the United States, with thousands of people protesting all over the country against police brutality and racial inequality over the past few months.
UN experts have expressed concern over the non-indictment verdicts in the Brown and Garner cases, calling for a proper trial.
