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CINCINNATI — A white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man, sparking rioting, acted carelessly and lied to investigators to save to his job, a prosecutor argued Monday. 

Officer Stephen Roach had his finger on the trigger of his revolver and rashly fired in a dark alley rather than use other means to stop the fleeing suspect, prosecutor Stephen McIntosh said in closing arguments. 

Other officers chasing Timothy Thomas, 19, on April 7 testified they had not drawn their weapons, he said. 

“At some point, Officer Roach is moving down the alley with his finger on the trigger, discharging the weapon into the darkness,” McIntosh said. “Tim was essentially cornered. There was no place to go.” 

Judge Ralph E. Winkler, who heard the case without a jury, said he will announce his verdict Wednesday. 

The shooting sparked three days of rioting, the city’s worst racial unrest since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. A dawn-to-dusk curfew was ordered, dozens of people were injured and more than 800 were arrested. 

Roach, 27, could face nine months in jail if convicted of negligent homicide and obstructing official business. 

Defense lawyer Merlyn Shiverdecker said the officer’s fear caused him to involuntarily fire his weapon. He also said the dim light in the alley affected the officer’s sight and hearing. 

The prosecution failed to counter scientific testimony on either point, and police homicide investigator Charles Beaver failed to investigate those things at the scene, he said. 

“He was precipitous and premature,” Shiverdecker said of Beaver. “His logic was faulty and flawed.” 

Roach, a city officer since 1997, did not testify at the trial. He declined comment in the courtroom after sitting quietly through the closing arguments. 

McIntosh said Roach told homicide investigators differing versions of what happened to save his job. 

The officer initially told investigators that Thomas made a threatening move toward him, and he thought Thomas had a gun. Investigators said they interviewed Roach again after finding discrepancies between their evidence and his statement. 

Three days later, Roach told investigators that Thomas stepped around a corner in the alley and startled him, and that the officer accidentally shot him. 

Police later found that Thomas — who was wanted on 14 charges, including traffic offenses and fleeing from police to avoid arrest — had no weapon.