(PHILADELPHIA) — A judge has reinstated all charges, including murder, against former Philadelphia police officer Mark Dial in the fatal shooting of Eddie Irizarry, according to Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.
Judge Lillian Ransom’s decision on Wednesday comes a month after a different judge dismissed the case, citing lack of evidence.
Irizarry, 27, was shot inside his car during a traffic stop on Aug. 14. Dial was charged with murder, as well as voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person and official oppression, stemming from the shooting.
Dial was not in court on Wednesday but was represented by his lawyers, WPVI reported. He will be going back to prison and be held without bail, according to WPVI.
Brian McMonagle, one of Dial’s attorneys, told reporters the defense’s next steps may include trying to move the case to a county “where law and order matters.”
“We have to now take this ruling and deal with it,” McMonagle said outside the courthouse on Wednesday.
When reached for comment, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said, “We will be trying this case in the courtroom, not in the media.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had previously released footage from the body-worn cameras of Dial and a second officer who was at the scene.
The footage shows Dial getting out of his cruiser and approaching Irizarry’s car with his gun drawn. “I will f—— shoot you,” he says, before firing into the front driver’s seat where Irizarry was seated. Prior to shots being fired, an officer can be heard yelling at Irizarry to show his hands.
Dial fired six shots “at close range,” Krasner said.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office refiled the criminal complaint against Dial on all charges hours after Judge Wendy Pew dismissed the case on Sept. 26.
Dial’s attorneys have maintained that the officer was acting in self-defense.
“Before there was a discharge in this case, the other officer shouted gun, and my officer thought what he clearly believed to be a gun before he fired,” McMonagle told reporters last month. “There’s no doubt about the fact that he believed it was a gun.”
McMonagle said officers believed Irizarry raised what appeared to be a gun and “pointed it” at them. The officers later determined the object to be a knife, McMonagle said.
Dial was terminated following a 30-day suspension, after an administrative investigation found he violated department rules against “insubordination” by allegedly refusing to obey “proper orders from a superior officer,” then-Philadelphia Police Commission Danielle Outlaw said on Aug. 23. She said the administrative investigation also accused Dial of “conduct unbecoming” an officer for “failure to cooperate in any departmental investigation.”
Irizarry’s family said they were thankful for Ransom’s decision.
“We finally got the answer we needed,” Irizarry’s aunt, Ana Cintron, told reporters Wednesday outside the courthouse. “This is just one step — a big step – but that we actually needed to hear.”
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