Earl M. Lindsey testified that he feared for his life when an unarmed man threw a punch at him and a large group of people, some with guns, surrounded him in a South Side intersection.

So, Lindsey said, he pulled a handgun and fired a single shot into Rashawn M. Wilson's chest. Wilson, 18, died six days later.

"I didn't have any other option," Lindsey told a Franklin County jury last week.

On Monday, the jury acquitted him of murder, determining that he acted in self-defense.

Wilson's mother responded to the verdict by cursing at Lindsey after the jurors had been excused.

"You put a bullet in my son," she shouted as deputies hustled her from the courtroom.

Lindsey testified last week that he saw at least three people with guns and heard two gunshots as a crowd converged on him during a street brawl at the intersection of East Gates and Ann streets on May 23, 2016.

Wilson "swung on me," Lindsey said, but he never saw a gun in Wilson's hands.

To shoot Wilson under those circumstances was "extreme, unnecessary and unjustified," Assistant Prosecutor Mark Wodarcyk told the jury Monday in his closing argument.

"At most, Rashawn was going to engage in a fist fight."

Seconds after Lindsey shot Wilson, a neighbor fired at Lindsey from a nearby front porch, striking Lindsey in the side of the neck. The bullet remains lodged near Lindsey's spine and left him with some paralysis. He wasn't able to fully lift his right hand when he was sworn in before testifying.

The neighbor, Aaron Mahan, wasn't part of the confrontation in the street. He testified that he fired when Lindsey pointed the gun in his direction after shooting Wilson.

"I shot the guy who shot the kid," he said.

Mahan, who said he is a concealed-carry instructor, was not charged in the case.

Testimony established that the fatal encounter began with a fist fight among several young women. Lindsey said he was trying to separate the combatants when a large group of people, some with guns, began to close in on him.

Wodarcyk called it "a simple neighborhood fight" and said Lindsey "decided to put himself in the middle of it with a loaded handgun."

Defense attorney Byron Potts argued to the jury that Lindsey was justified in using deadly force because he was surrounded by a large crowd that included "multiple people with guns."

jfutty@dispatch.com

@johnfutty