The St. Louis County Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Cooper for illegally possessing a firearm that he found in his dead brother’s car in July. Cooper wrapped the handgun in a sweatshirt, placed it inside a secure door in his apartment building and called his parole officer to retrieve it.

That is illegal under the letter of the law, as Cooper is prohibited from possessing any firearm, and state statute does not allow exceptions for brief or accidental possession. But the Duluth Branch of the NAACP labeled it “unjust” and took to the steps of the courthouse to demand that County Attorney Kim Maki exercise prosecutorial discretion and dismiss the case.

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Maki acknowledged the NAACP’s perspective, but said her office “will not shortcut our responsibility to the public to ensure a thorough investigation of this matter.” She added that any allegations of racism are “unfounded.”

“We stand by the decision to charge Mr. Cooper for violating the law based on the evidence we had at the time,” Maki said in a statement. “The statute at issue in this case is a strict liability statute, meaning that the possessor’s intent isn’t an element of the crime. Rather, if a prohibited person is in possession of a firearm or ammunition, whether they intend to or not, they have violated the statute.”