DETROIT (WXYZ) — A judge has dismissed the case against a Detroit Police Officer charged in connection with the death of a 71-year-old Detroit man that happened in September.
Twenty-nine-year-old Juwan Marquise-Alexander Brown had been charged with Manslaughter in the death of Daryl Vance.
Prosecutors say Brown was dispatched to a bowling alley in the 4100 block of Woodward Avenue on September 1. Someone had called 911 to report that Vance was being "disorderly."
Prosecutors say a "verbal confrontation" between Brown and Vance escalated, with Brown punching Vance in the face, which caused him to fall to the ground and hit his head on the pavement.
Medics took Vance to the hospital from the scene and he was pronounced dead on September 21. According to prosecutors, the Wayne County Medical Examiner determined that Vance died of blunt force trauma to the head from the punch.
During a preliminary hearing on Thursday, Judge Kenneth King ruled that prosecutors had not met the burden required for the case to move forward with a trial. He particularly questioned whether what had happened met the legal definition of an assault, which would have been required to sustain the involuntary manslaughter charge.
Brown had faced 15 years in prison if convicted.
