Two former Oklahoma police officers have been charged in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old father of 8, Quadry Sanders.
Nathan Ronan and Robert Hinkle, the former Lawton officers who shot and killed Sanders, were charged with first-degree manslaughter following the events of Dec. 5, per the Washington Post. After an internal investigation, both men were fired from their positions in January, and the new charges come from the Comanche County district attorney.
District Attorney Kyle Cabelka told KSWO that the office concluded that “the shooting of Quadry Sanders was not justified,” after looking over material from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The shooting took place at around 8:30 p.m., when officers received a call about a violation of a protective order and a gun, as the DA claimed the father was refusing to let a person leave. Sanders left from a side door before going back inside and exiting through the front door, when officers yelled “Hands, hands,” per the above body camera footage.
He put his hands up before an officer fired four shots, then seven more were fired when he put his hands up again, while sitting down after being hit. He was then handcuffed as he was bleeding, and it took 2 minutes for him to receive any medical aid, per the footage. He died that night in a local hospital, per the Post.
Sanders’ family lawyer Lee Merritt said he could not “find a single redeemable factor that mitigates any aspect of this shooting,” calling it “murder” with “no justification” in an Instagram post about the matter.
“My thoughts and prayers go out to the parents and those in our community who lost a loved one in Quadry Sanders,” Lawton Mayor Stan Booker said in a statement, adding that “the loss of life in our community is always a difficult matter to grasp.”
Ronan was previously cleared of wrongdoing in April of 2021 after shooting and killing 24-year-old Zonterious Johnson, who police say displayed a weapon in an alley. No weapon was found at the scene of Sanders’ shooting.
“It really shocks the conscience when you have a chance to see Mr. Sanders literally doing whatever he could to try to save his own life and these officers are operating with such callousness,” Merritt told KSWO.
