From [HERE] A former Newport News police officer was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday in the killing of a man in his home nearly three years ago.

Circuit Court Judge Margaret Poles Spencer handed down the sentence on former Sgt. Albin Trevor Pearson in the shooting death of 43-year-old Henry K. “Hank” Berry III on Dec. 27, 2019. She gave Pearson five years to serve for voluntary manslaughter and a year for going into Berry’s home unlawfully. Spencer is Black.

Friday’s hearing featured emotional testimony from the fathers of both men.

Pearson shot Berry during a struggle over a Taser after four officers chased him into his Oyster Point apartment without a warrant to try to arrest him on a misdemeanor charge of abusing the city’s 911 system.

Berry had made a series of calls to the police that afternoon about the well-being of his 9-year-old son who he thought had a black eye. But Pearson and another officer told him the boy was fine, and Pearson decided Berry should be arrested for his continued calls. [MORE]

When Berry tried to close his door on the officers, they pushed their way in, with the group ending up on the floor in close quarters. Another officer deployed a Taser in a standoff, with Pearson shooting Berry once in the back during the ensuing chaos.

Body-worn cameras from Pearson and three other officers on the scene captured the incident as it unfolded, with the footage used as evidence at Pearson’s jury trial in September.

Berry’s father, Henry K. Berry Jr., 83, called the slaying “such an unnecessary crime.”

“My son thought his son was in trouble, and he was trying to protect him and did everything he could,” he said, breaking down in tears on the witness stand. “He lost his life for a telephone call.”

A graduate of Hampton Roads Academy, Hank Berry ran a tree-cutting business since he was 19. He was also very creative, his father said, developing several patents — including one allowing trucks to more easily trim trees on a highway without stopping.

Hank and his son did everything together, from skiing to BMX biking to going to church, his father testified. ”His whole life was his son,” the father said.