WILMINGTON, N.C. — A New Hanover County grand jury today declined to indict ex-deputy Christopher Long in the shooting death of a teenager he meant to arrest. Special prosecutors with the state Attorney General's Office unsuccessfully sought to have the grand jury indict Long for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of Peyton Strickland, 18, a college student from Durham. On Dec. 1, Long was part of a sheriff's paramilitary unit that went to Strickland's house to search for a stolen video game machine and arrest Strickland and a friend on robbery and assault charges. The grand jury deliberated for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon but gave up just after 6 p.m. and returned this morning. A courtroom full of Long's and Strickland's family and friends sat in near silence waiting for the foreman's to emerge from a private conference room and announce the panel's decision. It was the first time Strickland's father, Don Strickland, has seen Long; they sat 10 feet apart and never met eyes. Long said he fired his fully automatic submachine gun because he thought he mistakenly thought he heard gun blasts. Instead, he was hearing the officers' battering ram hammering Strickland's door. Long admitted in an affidavit filed Monday that his hearing was impaired by an earpiece, a hood and helmet. In an unusual step in grand jury proceedings, a judge allowed Long to tell the grand jury what he recalled about the night he killed Strickland. The judge also permitted Peyton Strickland's father to testify, another rare move. Prosecutors asked the judge to remind the grand jurors this morning that their only job is to decide whether there is probable cause that a crime occurred and that Long committed it. They feared the grand jurors are trying to weigh evidence of guilt or innocence — deliberations that are supposed to be saved for full trial in Superior Court.
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