Black Man Helping People Shot By Police

Black Man Helping People Shot By Police

0 November 26, 2018 3:19 pm

 

Emantic Bradford Jr. during his senior year of high school.
Emantic Bradford Sr. via the Associated Press

When an officer of the Hoover Police Department in Alabama shot and killed Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., a 21-year-old black man, on Thursday at the Riverchase Galleria mall, the police claimed that Bradford had shot at least one person at the local mall prior to the police shooting.

 

But police have now admitted that Bradford didn’t shoot anyone, and the actual gunman remains at large. Now, the police shooting has drawn national attention as another example of an officer wrongly using deadly force against a black man.

Bradford did appear to have a gun. But he was licensed to carry a firearm, and it’s not illegal in Alabama to carry a gun in public.

According to police, some sort of altercation at the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving night led to a shooting that injured an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl, as well as the police shooting that killed Bradford.

Police at first pinned the initial shooting on Bradford but have fully retracted the claim — saying the actual shooter remains at large. Police have yet to identify the shooter and other suspects involved.

Bradford’s family says that Bradford was the victim of racial profiling. Although police claim that Bradford brandished his gun, his mother, April Pipkins, told reporters that he was, if anything, trying to protect people from the actual shooter. The family’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump Jr., claims that eyewitnesses said Bradford was trying to get people away from the initial shooting, and that Bradford kept his gun in his waistband.

The officer “saw a young black man with a gun and he shot him,” Crump told reporters on Sunday.

Bradford had no criminal record, and he was honorably discharged from the Army, Crump said.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating the shooting, and the Hoover Police Department is conducting an internal investigation. Police have not revealed the identity of the officer who shot Bradford, who’s on administrative leave as the investigation proceeds.

 

The Hoover Police Department said in a statement: “We can say with certainty Mr. Bradford brandished a gun during the seconds following the gunshots, which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching police officers responding to the chaotic scene. Body camera video and other available video was immediately turned over to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department as part of the investigation. Now, all evidence has been handed over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) to lead the investigation. Release of any video will be done as ALEA deems appropriate during the investigation.”

Bradford’s family is demanding transparency in the investigation, including the release of any video. The family has also asked for city officials to apologize for mistakenly identifying Bradford as a shooter.

The shooting led to protests outside the mall. And it’s received national attention as police use of force, particularly against black Americans, continues drawing heightened scrutiny — due to vast racial disparities in police use of force.

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