Missouri drops charges against officer indicted in shooting of man

By Kevin Murphy KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - A Missouri prosecutor on Friday dismissed charges against a Kansas City police officer indicted in February by a grand jury for the non-fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man last summer. The dismissal comes amid heightened attention to police shootings after a murder charge against a North Charleston, South Carolina police officer and the decision by a grand jury last November not to indict a Ferguson, Missouri officer who fatally shot an unarmed man. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said an investigation and legal analysis found that evidence no longer supported the charges against 31-year-old Jacob Ramsey. A state grand jury charged Ramsey with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of Anthony Contreras last June. Kansas City police said Ramsey was making a warrant check when Contreras ran from a house. Police said he feared he was about to be shot and fired at Contreras, critically wounding him. A plea of not guilty was entered for Ramsey in February. Baker said on Friday she could not carry the charges forward. "Like all prosecutors, we have a duty to be convinced that evidence supports a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," Baker said in a statement. "Our subsequent investigation convinced us that burden could not be met." (Editing by Curtis Skinner and Clarence Fernandez)