Independent Autopsy: Alabama Teen Shot In The Back By Police
Attorney Says Independent Autopsy Found Jabari Peoples, Teen Killed By Alabama Officer, Was Shot In Back
It has been nearly a month since 18-year-old Jabari Peoples was shot and killed by a police officer in the parking lot of a soccer field in Homewood, Alabama, an affluent suburb near Birmingham, and it has been weeks since Peoples’ family demanded the release of police bodycam footage of the fatal stop, which they were been denied. Authorities have still declined to release the footage or disclose the identity of the officer who shot Peoples, but the family, joined by famed civil attorney Ben Crump, have reported that an independent autopsy has found exactly what they have claimed over the last few weeks: that Jabari Peoples was shot in the back.
From the Associated Press:
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Peoples’ family, said at a news conference that a private medical examiner from Georgia who conducted an autopsy on the family’s behalf found that the teen had been shot in the back and that there was no exit wound. Without the bullet and body camera footage that captured the shooting, Crump said that the preliminary autopsy was inconclusive.
“This family is grasping at straws trying to get the answers. And it is not fair, it is not right and it is not just,” said Crump, who declined to name the medical examiner.
As we previously reported, the Homewood Police Department claimed that the officer who shot Peoples did so because the victim grabbed a gun from a car door during a scuffle as the officer was trying to arrest him for marijuana possession. A witness, who was a friend of Peoples and was there when he was stripped, disputed the HPD’s version of events, saying Peoples did not have a gun when the officer approached him.
As for the body camera footage, early this month, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) said it denied the family’s request because releasing the video could impact an ongoing investigation. However, the HBD assured the public that the details surrounding the incident are “clearly captured” on the officer’s body camera, and they would confirm the officers’ side of the story. According to AP, Homewood Mayor Alex Wyatt urged the state agency to release the footage on Monday while noting that he doesn’t have the authority to outright force the ALEA’s hand.
“Just show us what happened to our child, please,” Peoples’ father, William Peoples, said at the news conference.
The big question hanging over the heads of the HPD and the ALEA is this: If you’re so sure the bodycam footage will vindicate the officer, why not just release it to soothe a grieving family’s concerns of injustice instead of hiding behind policy?
What happened to Jabari Peoples? That’s what they (and we) want to know.
SEE ALSO:
Bodycam Footage Denied To Family Of Jabari Peoples, Who Was Shot And Killed By Alabama Police
