Motion Denied To Drop Manslaughter Indictment On A Former Columbus Police Officer

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A three year old police involved shooting case was in court again, on Thursday.

The manslaughter charge against a former Columbus Police officer will stand.

Canyon Boykin, the officer involved in a 2015 shooting death of a Columbus man, was denied his motion to dismiss the charge.

Circuit Court Judge Lee Coleman heard the motion at a hearing Thursday morning.

In October of 2015, a man named Ricky Ball, was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by Columbus Police.

As the traffic stop was made, Ball ran from the car.

One of the three officers making the stop, Canyon Boykin, gave chase.

That’s when the shooting happened.

How it happened – and why – will now be up to a jury to decide.

“I think I’ve heard enough. I am going to overrule the motion,” says Coleman.

Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Lee Coleman denies a motion to drop the manslaughter indictment against Canyon Boykin, the former Columbus Police Officer involved in the shooting of Ricky Ball.

The main reason for this hearing – a motion to quash the indictment against the former officer – presented by Boykin’s defense attorney, Jeff Reynolds.

“There was a ton of exculpatory evidence that the state did not present to the grand jury. We felt like it ought to have been presented. It should have been presented.”

That’s a legal term. But it means there is evidence that justifies a person’s actions – and even shows a lack of criminal intent.

But the state feels the opposite.

“The state has fulfilled it’s obligation by presenting the good, bad, ugly, and indifferent to the grand jury and the grand jury saw fit to indict Mr. Boykin.”

But Reynolds argues the grand jury didn’t see or hear evidence like this from this video.

“The evidence of their own MBI agents, who all testified that officer Boykin was forced to shoot Mr. Ball in self-defense, after Mr. Ball pointed a pistol at him.”

Defense attorney Reynolds now plans to take his motion to the Mississippi Supreme Court ask for additional guidance.

Judge Coleman says a trial date should be set by the middle of next year.

The case is set to be heard in Walthall County, because of a previous change of venue ruling.