A former Wilmington Police officer is charged with tampering and lying about the gun he used in a 2019 shooting.
James MacColl faces up to 5 years in jail if found guilty by a Superior Court jury.
"Tampering with physical evidence which is a Class G felony, official misconduct a Class A misdemeanor, and false statement to law enforcement a Class G felony," Attorney General Kathy Jennings said.
In February 2019, MacColl responded to a 911 call reporting a carjacking, then pursued and shot Yahim Harris of Wilmington.
During the ensuing use of force investigation, DOJ investigators saw discrepancies in ballistic analysis between the bullets fired from MacColl’s service weapon and the barrel of his gun.
Jennings says MacColl’s statements in the investigation misled everyone.
"It is alleged that officer MacColl knowingly and unlawfully lied to investigators in an attempt to conceal his use of a personal aftermarket gun barrel," said Jennings. "The defendant's staggering and disturbing lack of candor not only misled investigators inside the Department of Justice and in the Wilmington Police Department."
Jennings adds his actions also derailed and terminated the carjacking case against Harris because he wasn’t a credible witness.
Mark Denney is the Director of the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust, and he says the case that will be presented in court will be the same presented to the grand jury that handed down the indictments.
"We intend to present evidence that because he knew his firearm would be seized and kept by the Wilmington Police Department that he was motivated to retrieve a personal barrel that he had placed on that firearm," said Denney. He was not truthful about doing so and he did so in an unauthorized exercise of his official functions as a police officer."
Denney notes MacColl’s actions let an alleged carjacker free - since prosecutors were forced to drop the carjacking charges against Harris.
The reason MacColl’s firearm was taken in a shooting incident for an official proceeding is because of his prior involvement in the Jeremy McDole use of force investigation.
The ballistics discrepancy didn’t affect the legality of MacColl’s use of force because it was undisputed that he had fired his weapon.
The DOJ later learned in an interview that MacColl admitted he had switched the standard five-twist barrel on his service weapon with an aftermarket six-twist barrel in 2017. MacColl claimed he did not change his barrel when he shot Harris, but he didn’t explain how the barrel would have changed prior to its analysis. That was the first time the DOJ was aware of any such admission.
