Protesters have marched through an Alabama shopping centre where police killed a black man they later acknowledged was not the gunman in a shooting that wounded two people.
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November 25 2018 6:46 PM
Protesters have marched through an Alabama shopping centre where police killed a black man they later acknowledged was not the gunman in a shooting that wounded two people.
An officer shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr of Hueytown while responding to the shooting on Thursday. Police said Bradford was fleeing the scene with a weapon.
Hoover Police initially told reporters Mr Bradford had shot a teenager at the shopping centre, but later retracted the statement.
“We knew that was false,” said stepmother Cynthia Bradford when she heard police were blaming him for the shooting.
She described her stepson, who went by the name EJ, as a respectful young man who is the son of a Birmingham police department officer.
Hoover Police Captain Gregg Rector said investigators now believe that more than two people were involved in the initial fight ahead of the shooting, and that “at least one gunman” is still at large who could be responsible.
Rector said police regret that their initial statement about Mr Bradford was not accurate.
More than 200 demonstrators, including several relatives, chanted “EJ” and “no justice, no peace” as they marched past Christmas shoppers at the shopping centre. They held a moment of silence at the spot outside a shoe store where Bradford was killed.
“They should never have killed him,” Emani Smith, seven, Mr Bradford’s half-sister said, while other family members cried.
