A judge’s decision to acquit an officer of murder in the death of a black suspect came down to two major questions: Did the officer plant a gun, and did his outburst about killing the man seconds before the shooting signal premeditation?

St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson determined Friday that prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jason Stockley’s use of deadly force was not justifiable self-defense. Anthony Lamar Smith was killed in the 2011 encounter.

“Ultimately when people argue about this case, they are going to be arguing whether the judge drew the right conclusion from the evidence and probably less about the law,” said Ben Trachtenberg, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri.

Here’s a look at how the judge parsed those arguments in his ruling:

DID THE OFFICER PLANT THE GUN?

The officers were investigating what appeared to be a drug transaction in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. The car sped away and a high-speed chase ensued. Police slammed their SUV into Smith’s car. Stockley then got out and fired five shots into Smith’s car, killing him. A handgun was found in the car after the shooting.

Prosecutors argued the presence of Stockley’s DNA — and absence of Smith’s DNA — on the gun proved the gun must have been planted by the officer.

But the defense countered that Stockley heard his partner yell “gun” and saw the driver’s hand on a gun as the car sped by him. Stockley testified he did not draw his service revolver and fire until he saw Smith reaching around inside the vehicle after it was stopped. He said Smith changed his demeanor, suggesting he found the gun.

Stockley testified that after the shooting he found the gun tucked down between the seat and the center console, and he rendered the gun safe by unloading cartridges from the cylinder and then left the gun and cartridges on the passenger seat.

In his ruling, Wilson wrote that “a fact issue that is central” to the case is whether Smith had the gun when he was shot. He found the state’s contention that the officer planted the gun is not supported by evidence.

A full-sized revolver was too large for the officer to hide in his pants pockets and he was not wearing a jacket, the judge said. If the gun had been tucked into his belt, it would have been visible on a bystander’s video that showed Stockley walking between the police car and Smith’s car, he found.

Wilson also noted none of the officers standing next to the vehicle were called to testify that Stockley planted a gun. And he recounted witness testimony that the absence of a person’s DNA on a gun does not mean that person did not touch the gun.

“Finally, the Court observes, based on its nearly thirty years on the bench, that an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly,” the judge wrote.

DID THE OFFICER’S OUTBURST INDICATE PREMEDITATION?

Smith drove at speeds of up to 87 miles per hour on wet roads, endangering other drivers and pedestrians. About 45 seconds before the chase ended, police dashcam video captured Stockley saying, “going to kill this (expletive), don’t you know it.”

Prosecutors argued that statement proved the officer deliberated about killing Smith even before the pursuit ended.

When questioned about his statement at trial, Stockley said he could not remember saying those words. The ruling noted Stockley testified he had not made a decision to kill Smith and could not recall the context in which the statement was made.

The judge said in his decision that it was apparent from the dashcam audio and video that the pursuit was stressful, both because of its high speed and the confusion caused by multiple radios and communications with the dispatcher.

“People say all kinds of things in the heat of the moment or while in stressful situations, and whether Stockley’s statement … constituted a real threat of action or was a means of releasing tension has to be judged by his subsequent conduct,” the judge wrote.

The court does not believe the officer’s conduct following the end of the pursuit is consistent with the conduct of a person intentionally killing another person unlawfully, Wilson wrote. He noted testimony by the state’s witnesses that Stockley ordered Smith to open the door and show his hands.

It was not until 15 seconds after Stockley arrived the driver’s side door that he took his service revolver out of its holster and fired several shots.

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LONDON — Following a fast-moving investigation and manhunt, British police on Saturday arrested a second man in connection with a detonation on the London subway during the Friday morning rush hour, in which at least 30 people were injured. Police labeled the attack terrorism.

The man, 21, was arrested just before midnight Saturday in West London. Police did not announce his detention until Sunday morning.

Earlier, an 18-year-old man had been arrested by Kent police in the port area of Dover on the English Channel. Police suspect he might have been seeking a boat out of England.

In addition, armed police raided and searched a house in Sunbury, west of London, on Saturday afternoon. Counterterrorism units were at the scene, and police told reporters the operation was connected to the subway explosion.

A homemade bomb exploded on a London subway train at Parsons Green station Friday morning, sending a scorching blast of flame and smoke through a London subway car.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the BBC on Sunday that the second arrest suggested the attack was not the work of a “lone wolf” terrorist and implied some level of conspiracy.

On Saturday, Rudd said Saturday that it was “good fortune” the improvised explosive device “did so little damage,” but she said that the materials used to build the bomb were too readily available.

“We have to make certain we take all the steps we can to ensure that the sort of materials this man was able to collect become more and more difficult to combine together,” she said. 

[Britain’s prime minister: Not ‘helpful’ to speculate on probe]

Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Neil Basu called the arrest of the teen at the Dover port “significant” and said the investigation is ongoing. 

Both men are being held for questioning under the Terrorism Act. “For strong investigative reasons, we will not give any more details on the man we arrested at this stage,” Basu said, speaking of the teen.

In the town of Sunbury-on-Thames, located about 15 miles to the west of central London, residents waited outside a police cordon on Saturday evening, as forensics experts entered a rowhouse on Cavendish Road.

Anna Wilkins 43, lives next to the house being searched. “I saw a young man come out of there with his bike a couple of times in recent weeks,” Wilkins said. The young man, whom she described as “Asian,” arrived at the house just a couple of months ago and lived with an elderly couple. It is unknown whether the young man described by Wilkins is the suspect arrested in Dover.

“I never spoke to him and only saw him when he left the house with his bike, but I was always suspicious of him,” Wilkins said.

The BBC later reported that the couple who owns and lives in the house that was searched, Ronald and Penelope Jones, were respected members of the community who had worked as foster parents for “hundreds of children, including refugees.” They were awarded for their service with honors from Queen Elizabeth II in 2010.

One resident living near the house being searched said he had never seen anyone entering or leaving it. “This isn’t an area where people really know each other,” said Chris Ross, 51. “This afternoon, there were suddenly armed police officers who told us to get out of our houses as soon as possible. They only gave us a couple of seconds.”

After the bombing, security measures were immediately tightened across London’s vast mass-transit network, and the government described the threat level as critical, meaning another attack could be imminent.

The Islamic State terrorist group asserted responsibility for the explosion. Experts cautioned that the group often seeks credit for attacks it may have only inspired, as well as ones it had nothing to do with.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick traveled — escorted by journalists — by subway to Waterloo station and “patrolled” the South Bank of the Thames.

“Yesterday we saw a cowardly and indiscriminate attack, which could have resulted in many lives being lost,” Dick said. “Since then, we have had teams of detectives and specialists working through the night on the investigation, and officers throughout London mobilizing and providing an increased visible police presence — especially in crowded places.”

The explosion on London’s Tube rekindled debate about whether countries such as Britain have been tough enough in fighting terrorism. Just hours after the blast, President Trump suggested that Britain needed to be “more proactive.” Prime Minister Theresa May retorted that such comments were not helpful.

Read more:

British police deploy giant futuristic nets in bid to stop terrorist vehicle attacks

Terrorism in London seems to confirm Muslims’ growing dread

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Demonstrators clashed with police officers Friday night in St. Louis after the acquittal of a white former police officer who was charged with murder last year for fatally shooting a black driver after a car chase.

In a video tweeted after midnight on Saturday, St. Louis police chief Lawrence O’Toole said at least 23 people had been arrested as of 6 p.m., and 10 police officers had suffered injuries including a broken jaw and a dislocated shoulder.

“Many of the demonstrators were peaceful. However, after dark, many agitators began to destroy property and assault police officers,” O’Toole said in a joint video statement with Mayor Lyda Krewson.

O’Toole said the protesters assaulted police with bricks and bottles, and officers responded by using tear gas and firing pepper-spray balls as a “less lethal option.”

Roughly 1,000 protesters descended on the mayor’s home, throwing rocks and breaking windows, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They were met by about 200 police in riot gear who tried to disperse them with tear gas. The mayor did not appear to be home.

The night of violence began with peaceful demonstrations earlier in the day after a judge acquitted former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley for killing Anthony Lamar Smith in December 2011.

In a court document submitted by the St. Louis circuit attorney, the investigator on the case said Stockley and another officer had been chasing Smith at speeds up to 80 m.p.h. when Stockley said he was “going to kill this motherf‑‑‑er, don’t you know it” and told the officer to drive into Smith’s slowing car.

The document said Stockley then approached Smith’s window and fired five times into the car, hitting Smith “with each shot” and killing him. In addition, prosecutors accused the officer of planting a gun on the victim: There was a gun found in Smith’s car, but it was later determined to have DNA only from Stockley.

[Former St. Louis police officer charged with murder in fatal 2011 shooting of black man]

Judge Timothy Wilson, the circuit judge who heard the case in a bench trial, acquitted Stockley on the murder charge as well as a charge of armed criminal action in a 30-page order released Friday morning.

Wilson wrote that he was “simply not firmly convinced” of Stockley’s guilt, saying that “agonizingly,” he went over the case’s evidence repeatedly. Ultimately, Wilson said, he was not convinced that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Stockley “did not act in self-defense.”

Following the verdict, Smith’s mother, Annie, said the judge made the wrong decision.

“Justice wasn’t served. I can never be at peace,” she told Fox2Now.

In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Stockley, 36, who relocated to Houston, acknowledged the hurt Smith’s family is feeling. “I know everyone wants someone to blame,” he told the newspaper, “but I’m just not the guy.”

When asked why he agreed to address the case, tears filled his eyes. “Because I did nothing wrong,” he said. “If you’re telling the truth and you’ve been wrongly accused, you should shout it from the rooftops.”

A West Point graduate who served with the Army in Iraq, Stockley said that his job as a St. Louis cop grew so dangerous, he began carrying unauthorized weapons with extra rounds.

“I accept full responsibility for violating the rules,” he said. “But it’s not a moral crime. It’s a rule violation.”

In the afternoon, police used pepper spray on protesters blocking their path, while demonstrators smashed the front windshield of a police SUV, the Post-Dispatch reported.

On Friday night, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R), who had put the state’s National Guard on standby ahead of the verdict and potential protests, chastised those who engaged in violence, saying it “is not going to be tolerated here in the state of Missouri.”

Before the verdict was announced, Greitens stood with Christina Wilson, Smith’s fiancee, to deliver a joint message asking people to protest peacefully.

“If you feel like you want to speak out, speak how you feel,” Wilson said at the news briefing. “And whatever comes to you, just do it in a peaceful way.”

Greitens, speaking after Wilson, urged people who felt pain after the verdict not to “turn that pain into violence.”

“One life has been lost in this case, and we don’t need more bloodshed,” he said.

[Video footage shows Minn. traffic stop that ended with Philando Castile’s death]

Neil J. Bruntrager, an attorney for Stockley, said in a telephone interview that the judge’s detailed opinion explaining the verdict was his “best effort in that regard to make sure people understand why he did what he did.”

The unrest has gripped the St. Louis region, which was rocked in 2014 when an officer in suburban Ferguson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager.

That shooting prompted intense, sometimes violent protests, as did the decision months later not to indict that officer, Darren Wilson. The case, and the protests that followed, garnered worldwide attention, and in many ways kick-started the nationwide focus on police officers’ use of deadly force, particularly against black men and boys.

Since Ferguson, police shootings or other uses of force — and decisions not to charge the officers in most of the cases involved — have set off heated protests in New York, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Charlotte and other cities across the country.

But the specter of Ferguson has lingered over St. Louis, which last month marked the third anniversary of Brown’s death. It has also fueled a change in the way local officials respond to shootings and potential protests, with officials in some cases hurrying to release information to avoid becoming the “another Ferguson,” as one civil rights leader put it after a police shooting in his community.

[Minn. officer acquitted in shooting of Philando Castile during traffic stop, dismissed from police force]

Krewson, the city’s mayor, said in a statement Friday she is “appalled” by what happened to Smith.

“I am sobered by this outcome,” she wrote. “I will continue my work to create a more equitable community.”

Before the verdict, activists in the St. Louis region pledged “mass disruption” should Stockley wind up getting acquitted, vowing the outcome would “look a lot like Ferguson.”

Demonstrators began gathering in the streets after the acquittal Friday, growing in size as the day wore on.

Jeffrey A. Mittman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, said Smith “died unnecessarily” in 2011.

“This region — and our country as a whole — have seen too many deaths caused by police, with little accountability for the officers or department involved,” Mittman said in a statement.

Smith’s death preceded the wave of police shootings and other uses of force that captured national attention recently. Stockley was ultimately charged last year after new evidence emerged from the St. Louis city police and the FBI, according to the circuit attorney, who did not disclose what that was. According to the circuit attorney’s office, the St. Louis police’s internal affairs investigators contacted them in March 2016 with this new evidence that ultimately made the prosecutor pursue charges.

Prosecutors said during the trial that they believe Stockley, who left the St. Louis police force in 2013, planted a gun on Smith after the shooting.

Attorneys for Stockley said the officer acted in self-defense because he feared that Smith was going to shoot him. When he testified, Stockley denied planting the gun in Smith’s car, saying he first touched it when searching the vehicle.

In his order acquitting Stockley on Friday, Wilson said he did not believe evidence supported the prosecution’s argument that the officer planted the gun.

Wilson outlined a history of the case, saying that Smith’s car crashed into a police vehicle before driving off. Stockley fired shots at Smith’s car before they pursued him in a high-speed car chase that Wilson said lasted three minutes, endangered drivers and pedestrians and was “stressful” for the officers involved.

According to Wilson’s account, which in part is based on the dashboard camera from the police car, Stockley approached Smith’s car with his hand on his holstered gun and then appeared to wrestle “with something or someone at the window.” Stockley is then seen drawing his gun and firing.

A medical examiner later said that Smith had been shot five times, with one bullet going through Smith’s heart, Wilson wrote. The medical examiner could not say whether Smith was reaching for anything when he was shot.

Wilson said that he did not believe Stockley’s actions after the pursuit were “consistent with the conduct of a person intentionally killing another person unlawfully,” noting that Stockley did not immediately open fire when approaching Smith’s car and adding that the officer had been told Smith had a gun.

“No one promised a rose garden, and this surely is not one,” Wilson wrote.

Wilson also discussed Stockley’s comment about killing Smith, saying that the pursuit was stressful for the officers involved, noting that “people say all kinds of things in the heat of the moment or while in stressful situations.”

Bruntrager, Stockley’s attorney, said that while it is terrible when someone loses their life, Stockley felt some “personal satisfaction” because Wilson’s order showed he viewed the former officer as credible.

“Particularly police officers who’ve been through this,” Bruntrager said of officers facing charges or possible charges after fatal shootings. “They know what they know, they know what they saw. When they hear someone say yes, I believe that is what happened, that makes a difference.”

In the span of a week this summer, juries opted against convicting three police officers charged in high-profile shootings that were captured on video. In each of those cases, the video and the case prompted protests and unrest. In each of those cases, prosecutors filed charges and decried what had happened. Each case ended with an acquittal, showing what law enforcement officials and experts say are the limitations of video evidence.

“This not guilty verdict of a police officer who violently killed a citizen is another slap in the face to the black community in St. Louis. And a shot in the heart to the family of the victim,” Missouri State Rep. Michael Butler (D-St. Louis) said in a statement issued Friday morning, adding that the verdict has left him “appalled.”

“This system and all the politicians calling for peace are ignoring the pain this verdict causes our communities. Anthony Lamar Smith is dead from a violent act and you want us to be peaceful? You want us to not feel anger? The very people paid to protect us are killing us, paid to make peace are perpetuating violence, and we are supposed to be peaceful?” he wrote. “We will be nonviolent but we will not settle on peace. No justice. No peace.”

This story has been updated since it was first published. 

Further reading:

The Washington Post’s database of police shootings this year

Former Milwaukee police officer acquitted in fatal shooting of Sylville Smith

Mistrial declared in case of South Carolina officer who shot Walter Scott after traffic stop