INDIANAPOLIS — Only on WRTV, the special prosecutor who led the investigation into the shooting death of Dreasjon Reed is speaking out in her first interview since the November decision.
In Reed's case, we will never know what was said or seen by the grand jury. It decided not to seek criminal charges against Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer De'Joure Mercer.
Reed was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire during a foot chase last May.
Special Prosecutor Rosemary Khoury oversaw the investigation, which was handled by the Indiana State Police.
Khoury has said she could feel the burden of the case.
"The burden was a heavy burden. It was a heavy burden," Khoury said. "I felt compassion for Mr. Reed's mother. I'm a mother of two boys. It was extremely difficult to process some of the evidence that I received. I also felt compassion for Officer Mercer's family and Officer Mercer."
Khoury can't talk about what was presented to the grand jury involving this high profile and sensitive case.
"Because the public doesn't have the benefit of obtaining all the evidence that I have, they arrive at their conclusions based on certain aspects that this was a Black man he was shot by police so therefore it was unjustified and because this is a Black woman she will also see that way," Khoury said. "However, I'm also bound by the rules of law so I must follow the law. I must follow the evidence. So yes, I believe that because I'm a Black woman that there were many people who believed that I should naturally side one way or the other because the shooter was a Black man. But that I should side one way or the other just because we share the same ethnicity, that wasn't the case. That's not how you practice law, that's not how you prosecute a case."
The public announcement in November closing the criminal case also gave us a personal insight on the court appointed special prosecutor who's a mother of two boys.
"We have discussed this case and this was an opportunity for me to remind my children how to behave when they are out in society and how not to behave not to say anything about this particular case — it was just a reminder to me to have that discussion with my children," Khoury said.
