(VitalNews.org) – A young man from New York City has had a charge of manslaughter against him cleared after grand jurors were shown video evidence of his fatal encounter with Devictor Ouedraogo, 36. Jordan Williams was not indicted for manslaughter after the jury agreed that he had acted in self-defense after Ouedraogo punched Williams and his girlfriend on a subway train on June 13th.
Several videos were provided by passengers on the train who decided to record Ouedraogo when he began harassing subway riders. At one point in the footage he sexually harasses a woman, gyrating his hips and saying lewd things to her, despite her telling him to stop. He was also reported to have threatened to “erase” someone as he moved up and down the train with a friend in an agitated fashion.
When Ouedraogo punched Williams’ girlfriend in the face, Williams grappled with him but ended up pressed against a seat with Ouedraogo’s hands around his neck. At this point, Williams pulled out a folding knife and stabbed his attacker in the abdomen. Ouedraogo backed away and moved into another car after the stabbing, before disembarking from the train at Marcy Ave and collapsing on the platform. Despite a 911 call bringing police to the scene and resulting in Ouedraogo being taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, he died from his wounds.
For the fatal stabbing, Williams faced up to 25 years in prison. Following the grand jury’s decision to drop the charges against him, he told reporters that he was happy to be able to get on with his life. Following the news of his arrest, he was fired by his employer FedEx. He did, however, receive a great deal of support from others, with $120,000 being raised for his defense fund.
Williams stated that he did not want to kill Ouedraogo, who was previously jailed for attempted robbery in 2009, but just wanted to wound him in order to get his girlfriend and himself to safety.
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