FAMU's Jonathan Ferrell, the Randall Kerrick case and a college coach's remembrance

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- On September 14, 2013, former Florida A&M football player Jonathan Ferrell lost his life on a Charlotte roadside. It's a script that now sounds too familiar. An unarmed black man. An armed police officer. And now, a contentious trial featuring two sides of the same story that always ends the same:

A life cut short. A life now recalled in twelve snapshots —one for every bullet fired toward Ferrell's body:

I. Ferrell fit the profile. Big and physical enough to play linebacker. Fast enough to play safety. Instinctive enough to grab a key interception in the Florida state championship game. A Florida A&M University High graduate with high-level D-I talent, but homebody tendencies, his heart Tallahassee-bound.

So naturally, Florida A&M’s college football program and then-defensive coordinator Earl Holmes saw Ferrell. And they took a shot.

II. September 14, 2013, in the dark hours past midnight:

Ferrell fit the profile from the panicked 911 call. A black man. Bleeding. Big enough to have filled the doorframe of Sarah McCartney’s Charlotte home.

According to Randall Kerrick’s attorneys, he ignored repeated police demands to hit the ground. He advanced.

So naturally, Officer Kerrick saw Ferrell. And he took a shot. Then he took eleven more. 12 bullets. Ten intercepted by Ferrell’s body. An 83.3 completion percentage. A body, touched down.

An officer shackled Ferrell's wrists as he died.

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