Two fatal shootings earlier this year will not be going to trial after a grand jury chose not to indict either shooter on grounds of self defense.

The first of the fatal shootings took place March 25, 2018, at Watkins court, where police arrived to find Jemarion Deandre Edwards, 27, dead of a gunshot wound.

District Attorney Tom Anderson said evidence in the case showed that Edwards had a gun and was preparing to fire on a crowd of people in the area.

“He had an AR-22 pistol and it was the belief of law enforcement and the people present that he was intending to shoot at people,” Anderson said. “He was racking the pistol to fire. There was a bullet jammed in the chamber and one on the ground.”

Two weeks later on April 7, Bobby Tremain Barrow was fatally shot in the 600 block of Hanchey Street.

Anderson said that in this case, Barrow had an airsoft gun identical in appearance to a real gun and was pointing it at the man who eventually shot and killed him.

“If you’ve seen them, they look exactly like the real thing,” Anderson said. “He kept pointing it at this individual.”

Anderson said the shooter warned Barrow that he had a gun and would shoot if Barrow did not stop pointing the gun at him.

Neither shooter was ever charged in the case or publically identified.

Anderson said that the proper course of action was to wait until a grand jury session to determine whether the shooters should be charged.

The shooters were protected by Section 13A-3-23 of the Code of Alabama, which states that “a person is justified in using physical force upon another person in order to defend himself or a third person from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by that other person, and he may use a degree of force which he reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose.”