What to Know
- All charges -- including murder -- against former Philadelphia Police officer Mark Dial in the August 14 killing of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry have been reinstated after being previously dismissed
- Irizarry was slain seconds after police approached his vehicle after a traffic stop. Police originally said he was killed after lunging at officers with a knife. Body cam video proved otherwise
- Protests in response to the initial dismissal of charges against Dial were followed by days of unrest and looting as opportunistic individuals were said to have used the case as a reason to break into stores throughout the city
Former Philadelphia Police officer Mark Dial, 27, was taken into custody again Wednesday after all murder charges were reinstated in the shooting death of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry following a traffic stop in the city's Kensington neighborhood in August.
He is being held without bail.
All charges against the officer were reinstated during a hearing on Wednesday morning after the District Attorney's Office refiled murder charges against Dial, shortly after they were dismissed last month.
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In making her judgement, Court of Common Pleas Judge Lillian Ransom said that she agreed with prosecutors that there remain “sufficient questions of fact” that need to be determined by a jury.
According to court documents, the district attorney's office argued that prosecutors had met the requirements necessary for taking the case to trial.
The document also notes that within the span of six seconds, Dial announced his intention to kill Irizarry and never retreated to cover behind his patrol car, instead shooting Irizarry five times through the closed window of a locked car door.
At the time of the shooting, officers believed Irizarry may have been armed, however he did not have a firearm. Irizarry did have two knives in the vehicle when he was killed.
After Wednesday's hearing, a tearful Ana Cintron, Irizarry's aunt, argued that he may have not even been holding a knife when he was killed through the window of a locked door.
"At the last trial they noted that the knife did not have any blood on it," she said. "If he raised the knife...he was actually shot...his fingers were blown off. So, if that was the case, why wasn't there blood if he raised the knife?"
She argued that there was no sign that Irizarry ever wanted to hurt an officer.
"They've been lying all along," she said. "They've been lying from the beginning."
Also, following the ruling, lawyers for Dial told NBC10 that they intend to file a motion to have the case tried outside of Philadelphia in order to "get a fair trial."
Philadelphia Municipal Judge Wendy Pew's initial Sept. 26 decision to consider the shooting justified shocked members of Irizarry's family -- who have since filed a civil lawsuit in this case -- especially after Dial's own bodycam footage showed that the former officer gave Irizarry mere seconds to comply before firing through a car window and killing him.
That judge cited lack of evidence in the case.
Pew's ruling led to protests as well as days of unrest and looting as opportunistic individuals were said to have used it as a reason to target stores throughout the city.
When the district attorney's office announced that charges would be refiled, last month, it noted that the office disagreed with Pew's ruling and intended to see "all criminal charges, including Murder, reinstated against this defendant."
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the district attorney's office denied comment on the day's ruling, saying the case would be tried "in a Philadelphia courtroom, not in the media."
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