UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- The Rev. Tom Whitehead, who presided over Michael Ellerbe's funeral, said he knew something was amiss when he walked into a coroner's inquest for the 12-year-old black child's death and saw nothing but white faces on the panel.

"When I got there and saw the composition of the jury, I had serious doubts that it was going to be an objective hearing," Whitehead told WTAE's Marcie Cipriani on Tuesday. "I saw that the state police were in charge of the inquest."

The 10-hour hearing on Monday included testimony by state Trooper Sam Nassan, who said he shot at Ellerbe on Christmas Eve after hearing gunfire and concluding that his partner had been hit. After deliberating for close to an hour, jurors decided that the boy's fatal shooting from behind on a Uniontown street was justified.

Both Nassan, who is white, and Trooper Juan Curry, who is black, testified that Ellerbe was fleeing a stolen Ford Bronco that had just crashed. They also said that the boy was running with a hand in his pocket, as if he had a gun.

But the shot that Nassan heard did not come from Ellerbe, who was unarmed. It came from Curry, who said his weapon accidentally discharged while he was trying to get over a 4-foot-high fence.

Whitehead told Cipriani that he was upset because Curry was not asked why he climbed the fence with his gun drawn, nor why two men in good shape couldn't catch up to a 12-year-old boy.

"If Michael had his hands in his pocket, how was he able to scale that fence so easily when Trooper Curry couldn't?" Whitehead asked.

In addition to Whitehead, Ellerbe family attorney Joel Sansone has questioned why there were no black people on the jury. Members of the Fayette County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have also expressed their disappointment.

"You saw what went on in there. It was ridiculous, blatant," said executive NAACP board member Adrianne Wilson. "They didn't care. They did what they wanted to do."

Calls to state police in Uniontown and county Coroner Phillip Reilly weren't immediately returned Tuesday. On Monday, Reilly said he thought he had presented all the facts and given Sansone the opportunity to question witnesses.

District Attorney Nancy Vernon said she is reviewing the jury's recommendation and will decide by Saturday whether to file criminal charges. The U.S. Attorney's Office is conducting a separate investigation and could file charges if Vernon does not.