51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Jerryl Christmas met Mansur Ball-Bey in the morgue.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get to know him in his life,鈥� Christmas laments.

Christmas, a civil rights attorney, encountered Mansur on Aug. 19, 2015. Mansur that day was shot in the back and killed by former 51黑料 Metropolitan Police Department officer Kyle Chandler. Christmas, along with his friend and fellow attorney , had been called by Mansur鈥檚 father, Dennis Ball-Bey, after the shooting.

Christmas drove Dennis Ball-Bey from the shooting scene in the Fountain Park neighborhood to the hospital, then to the morgue, then to the police station and finally back to the morgue. There, Ball-Bey identified his son鈥檚 body.

鈥淚 was hoping he was going to be in the hospital,鈥� Ball-Bey told a jury last Thursday during a trial for a lawsuit he filed. 鈥淏ut he was dead.鈥�

The all-white jury of six men and three women also heard from Mansur鈥檚 mom, Barbara Chandler. They saw a week鈥檚 worth of evidence. And they awarded the family nearly $19 million in compensatory and punitive damages, one of the highest awards ever in a 51黑料 police shooting.

After the verdict, Christmas and I chatted in a hallway on the 13th floor of the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in downtown 51黑料. We talked about what happens too often after a police shooting.

In the moments after a young Black man like Mansur gets shot, police or prosecutors often leak selected information about the person. He smokes pot. He has a gun. He was in a house that SWAT was raiding for guns and drugs. There are Facebook or Instagram photos with guns and money.

Presented without context, the narrative can be set.

Here are some key facts: Mansur, 18, was at his cousin鈥檚 home on Aug. 19, 2015. Police raided the home. Mansur ran, tossing a gun in the backyard. He was shot in the back as he ran, unarmed, into the front yard. He had no criminal record.

After the trial last week, Heather De Mian, who regularly livestreams protests and other events in 51黑料, sent me video of one of the protests after Mansur鈥檚 death. In it, Darren Seals, a Ferguson protester who was shot and killed in September 2016, talks poetically about how Black men are often portrayed after they get shot.

鈥淲hy, every time they kill one of us, all of a sudden we become Super Negro?鈥� he asked. 鈥淢ike Brown was the Hulk. (Mansur) was The Flash. Next time we鈥檙e going to have Spiderman jumping over cable cars.鈥�

In the case of Mansur, jurors saw pictures of him in a tuxedo with his father before the McCluer South-Berkeley High School prom. They saw pictures of Mansur in the red fez worn by ushers at the Moorish Science Temple of America, an Islamic temple in north 51黑料. The family attended services three days a week.

鈥淚 miss us going to the temple together,鈥� Dennis Ball-Bey told the jury.

鈥淗e was quiet,鈥� his mother testified. 鈥淗e was responsible.鈥�

She talked of Mansur helping take care of his little sister, who suffers from cerebral palsy, and of driving her on errands because she didn鈥檛 have a driver鈥檚 license.

U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Shirley P. Mensah didn鈥檛 let the city counselor鈥檚 office, which defended Chandler, present the social media photos, which helped define Mansur in the media days after his death, to the jury. She said they wouldn鈥檛 help the jury decide the only question that mattered: Was Mansur holding a gun and pointing it an officer at the time he was shot?

Plenty of kids smoke pot (now legal in Missouri) or enjoy rap music, with its lyrics about guns and money and drugs, the judge said. Such social media posts don鈥檛 define their character.

Mansur graduated high school with a 3.5 GPA. He had a job at Fed-Ex.

鈥淗e would have had a bright future,鈥� Christmas said.

We鈥檒l never know, of course. His life stopped the instant a bullet severed his spine and traveled through his aorta. That鈥檚 why the verdict is a double-edged sword, Christmas says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 joy and pain,鈥� he said.

The attorney is a big believer in destiny. This verdict, nearly 10 years in the making, brings justice to Mansur鈥檚 family but also makes a statement about police brutality.

鈥淚 think it was meant to bring us all together,鈥� Christmas says, 鈥渇or this court, in this time, to send this message to the criminal justice system about accountability.鈥�

Dennis Ball-Bey grew up in north 51黑料, one of 11 siblings sharing a two-room house. He dropped out of Sumner High School. He worked as a Post-Dispatch carrier, shined shoes, cut grass and did odd jobs before settling in for 30 years as a sanitation technician for a manufacturing company.

鈥淚 was really proud of myself when I had a son,鈥� Ball-Bey told the jury.

He named the child Mansur because the word means 鈥渧ictorious.鈥�

In the end, the name proved fitting.