Charles Kleinert, who killed Larry Jackson Jr while serving as a City of Austin police officer, will no longer face a manslaughter trial after a federal judge ruled on Thursday that Kleinert had protection from state charges because he also worked for a federal taskforce. Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that Kleinert was shielded by the supremacy clause of the constitution when he shot Jackson in the neck during a struggle at the end of a pursuit in July 2013. Kleinert, 51, was indicted for manslaughter by a grand jury last year. He claimed that he fired his pistol accidentally and had intended instead to strike Jackson with the weapon. Yeakel said the Texas courts had no jurisdiction over Kleinert because he had been investigating an unrelated bank robbery for his federal task force when he began to chase Jackson, and because he believed his actions against the 32-year-old “were no more than was necessary and proper”.

As if there weren't enough ways for law enforcement officers to walk away scot-free from killing unarmed citizens, former Austin, Texas police detective Charles Kleinert won on an unusual defense against a manslaughter charge in his July 2013 killing of Larry Jackson, Jr: that he had been deputized as an FBI agent to investigate a crime. More from The Guardian The incident in which Jackson was killed reads like a playbook of police violence. While investigating a previous robbery, Kleinart encountered and gave chase to Jackson, who had abruptly begun fleeing the bank after allegedly attempting to enter and cash a fraudulent check. Kleinart drew his weapon on the fleeing and unarmed Jackson and initiated a physical altercation with his weapon still unholstered. The end result: Jackson was killed by a gunshot from that weapon.

Judge Lee Yeakel's ruling that Kleinart was acting within the bounds of his authority as an FBI deputy for the robbery case means that the state manslaughter case does not apply and Kleinart might now walk free of any consequence. Prosecutors can decide to appeal the ruling, but no decision has yet been made.