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.
