A Metropolitan police officer has been charged with grievous bodily harm after a black man was shot with a Taser and left paralysed from the chest down.
Jordan Walker-Brown was shot with the electronic device in May 2020 in Haringey, north London, leaving him with serious life changing injuries, including damage to his spinal cord.
The decision by the CPS to bring charges against the officer, who has not been named, follows an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) last year. The IOPC’s inquiry determined that there was an indication the officer may have committed grievous bodily harm.
The constable will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 19 April.
Walker-Brown, 25, was stopped by officers from the Met’s Territorial Support Group on two consecutive days on 3 and 4 May 2020, and both times was carrying a small amount of cannabis for personal use.
On 4 May 2020, Walker-Brown was spotted by a Met TSG officer and was followed. In a statement, he said that he began to run when he saw two more officers get out of a van.
He was jumping over a wall, which was about 1.2 metres (4ft) high on one side but had a 1.8-metre drop on the other, when he was struck by the Taser. He then fell over the wall.
In a statement, Walker-Brown said: “I recognise also that the law allowed the police to chase me when I tried to run away from them. But what they were not entitled to do is to use a Taser on me when they knew that I did not pose any threat to them whatsoever: I was running away from them.
“I was running away from them precisely because of the threat they posed to me and my safety: a threat that, as a young black man, I could not afford to ignore. I know that I could have easily joined the long line of other black men who have died at the hands of the police.”
Commenting on the CPS’s decision to bring charges, Walker-Brown said: “This decision is a welcome first step towards justice for what was done to me by that police officer. I look now to the CPS to ensure that this matter is prosecuted to a just outcome.”
