The family of Jabari Peoples, a Black Alabama college student fatally shot by police, is demanding answers as authorities continue to withhold body-camera footage of the incident.
Jabari, an 18-year-old college freshman studying computer information systems and criminal justice, was shot by a Homewood, Alabama, police officer on the evening of June 23. Jabari was sitting in a vehicle with his girlfriend when they were confronted by an officer in the parking lot of a local soccer field.
The Homewood Police Department says an officer approached the car and smelled marijuana, prompting him to ask Jabari and his girlfriend to exit the vehicle. The officer attempted to arrest Jabari for unlawful possession of marijuana, which police say he resisted. At this point, the officer claims Jabari grabbed a handgun that was in his car’s side pocket, prompting the officer to shoot in self-defense.
Jabari was transported to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Homewood Police Department has not released the name of the officer involved in the shooting and has turned body camera footage over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which has yet to publish it or share it with the family.
An ALEA spokesperson told HuffPost that it has not disclosed the body camera footage because it could affect an ongoing investigation.
Family members, however, emphasize that the video footage could help them better understand what exactly happened when Jabari was shot.
20 Years OfFreeJournalism
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Jabari’s family commissioned an independent autopsy of his body, which found he was shot in the back. That autopsy did not find an exit wound or a bullet, however, raising more questions.
“There’s a key piece of evidence that’s being held from us and that’s the video,” said Leroy Maxwell, one attorney representing the Peoples family. “It’s something that the family deserves to see.”