Alabama mall shooting: Officer killed the wrong man, officials say
First, there was a shooting at an
Alabama shopping mall. Then, cops said they shot and killed the
triggerman. Now, the police are saying they killed the wrong person,
while the true gunman remains at large.
The
Hoover Police Departement issued a statement on Friday night saying
that the black man who was killed by police officers,
21-year-old Emantic Fitzerarld Bradford Jr., "may have been involved in
some aspect" of an altercation inside the Riverchase Galeria near
Birmingham on Thanksgiving.
However Bradford, "likely didn't fire the rounds," that struck an unidentified 18-year old man and an innocent 12-year old girl as initially suggested. Both remain in the hospital as they're treated for bullet wounds.
"We
knew it was false," said stepmother Cynthia Bradford when she heard
police were blaming him for the shooting, which took place on the mall's
second level, just before 10 p.m.
She described her stepson, nicknamed E.J., as a respectful young man who is the son of a Birmingham Police department officer.
"We
regret that our initial media release was not totally accurate, but new
evidence indicates that it was not," the Hoover Police Department said
in a statement. "Investigators now believe that more than two people
were involved in the altercation.
"This information indicates that there is at least one gunman is still at large," the police said.
Bradford, who's a native of Hueytown, is shown on social media wearing
a military uniform. He described himself as a combat engineer on
Facebook, however, the Washington Post reported that an Army spokesman
said he "never completed advanced individual training," meaning he did
not serve.
Just
hours before the mall episode, Bradford updated his profile picture on
Facebook with a snapshot of him wearing distressed denim jeans, black
Jordan's sneakers and a black screen printed T-shirt – the wardrobe he
wore to the mall that fatal night.
Video posted on
Twitter showed crowds of shoppers fleeing the mall, which is about 10
miles south of Birmingham, after hearing gunshots.
Debby Woods was one of the shoppers inside the mall at the time. She told WBRC News that she was buying jewelry when shots rang out. "I heard 'bang' and then 'bang, bang,' " she said.
"It was terrifying," Woods said. "Everybody started screaming."
More
than 200 protesters on Saturday marched through the shopping complex
where the events took place. Among the demonstrators were several
relatives. People chanted "E.J." and "no justice, no peace, no racist
police," as they marched past shoppers holding signs that read
"Emantic's Life Matters." They took a moment of silence at the spot
outside the Footaction store where Bradford was killed.
"They should have never killed him," said Emani Smith, Bradford's 7-year-old half-sister while other family members cried.
Relatives
described their horror to find out about Bradford's death from social
media posts. Video circulated on social media of Bradford lying in a
pool of blood on the mall floor.
Toward the end of the hourlong protest, demonstrators stood outside the shopping complex chanting, "The police lie. They lie. Stop shopping here. Not one more dime."
Carlos
Chaverst, an activist in Birmingham who organized the protest, said
that when authorities acknowledged that the person killed was not the
actual shooter, “that sent us in an uproar.”
He called for police to release body camera and surveillance footage.
“When
we found out about this incident, there were questions from the jump.
People were upset because a man was shot and killed by police in our own
backyard,” Chaverst said.
The officer who shot
Bradford was placed on administrative leave while the investigation
continues. The officer’s name has yet to be released publicly.
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