Jabari Peoples was shot dead by a Homewood, Alabama police officer under some wildly suspicious circumstances and his surviving family is demanding answers. Unfortunately, the Homewood Police Department is less than interested in transparency required of them to earn the public trust. BOSSIP previously reported on this case after the family began publicly making their displeasure with the process known.
According to ABC3340, the Peoples have finally be allowed to view the last moments of their beloved Jabari’s life, sort of. The family stood alongside ubiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump and attorney Leroy Maxwell for a press conference following their partial viewing of the body camera footage.
“This is not a open, and shut case. We believe that there’s more video out there, whether it’s the park surveillance video, whether it’s the rest of the bodycam video that is going to give us information,” said Crump.
Jabari’s sister Angel Smith also spoke on disappointment she feels after seeing the video that did not show the teenager pointing anything at the officer, much less a firearm. In fact, Smith says that you can see and hear Jabari trying to tell the officer that he only has a cell phone and that he poses no threat.
“Today, I am outraged, I’m hurt. I have so many unanswered questions, still. Today, what I saw on this video, my brother was afraid, he was scared. He was running for his life. Even to the point where he was shot in the back, He was telling the officer, ‘Sir, I promise I’m not trying to resist. This is my cellphone. This is my phone.’ This is what my brother said,” said Smith. “So I don’t know what they’re gonna show within this edits of this video, but we would like to see the true, unedited version of it and when it comes to me, release it to the public.”
Crump went on to say that the video that they were allowed to view is full of edits and missing parts. The question has to be asked, “Why?”
Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr has announced that not only will the case not be taken to a grand jury, there will be no criminal charges filed against the officer involved. Carr stated that his review of the video shows Peoples with a gun in his right hand as he ran away from the officer who fired a single round into the teenager’s back. Based on that account alone, Jabari was clearly not facing the officer, so, how could he be a threat? As Angel Smith said, more questions than answers.
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